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CHARLES-F-T 


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THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


A    Liberal    Educatiph 
and    a   Liberal    Faith 


A  SERIES  OF 

Baccalaureate  Addresses 


BY 

CHARLES  FRANKLIN  THWING,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 
\  i 

PRESIDENT    OF 

WESTERN    RESERVE    UNIVERSITY   AND 
ADELBERT    COLLEGE 


NEW    YORK:    THE    BAKER    &    TAYLOR    CO. 
33-37  EAST  SEVENTEENTH  ST.,      UNION  SQ.,   NORTH 


COPYRIGHT,  1903,  BY  THE  BAKER  &  TAYLOR  CO. 


Published  September,  1903. 


GIF! 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

These  sermons  were  written  and  delivered 
as  Baccalaureate  addresses.  The  first  two 
were  spoken  to  men  alone;  the  third  was 
spoken  to  women  alone;  the  others  were 
spoken  to  both  men  and  women.  All  of  them 
are  endeavors  to  interpret  the  relations  ot 
education  and  religion,  with  the  purpose  of 
making  education  more  nobly  religious,  re- 
ligion more  wise,  and  both  more  liberal. 

The  order  of  the  arrangement  of  the  ad- 
dresses is  chronological,  the  first  having  been 
given  in  1891,  and  the  last  in  June  of  the  pres- 
ent year. 

C.  F.  T. 

WESTERN  RESERVE  UNIVERSITY, 

Adelbert  College, 

Cleveland. 

September \ 


iii 


CONTENTS 


I.     THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION  AND  THE  DIVINE 

KINGDOM, i 

II.     GOING  INTO  THE  WORLD,          .        .        .15 

III.  GREAT   FORCES  IN  THE  EDUCATION   AND 

LIFE  OF  WOMEN, 28 

IV.  LOVE  :  CHRIST  AND  HUMANITY,        .        .  40 
V.     THE  YOUTH'S  DREAM  OF  LIFE,         .        .  55 

VI.     THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CHARACTER,      .         .  72 
VII.     THE  WORTH  OF  PERSONALITY,         .        .  90 
VIII.     MAN'S  OWNERSHIP  UNIVERSAL  AND  CON- 
DITIONAL,          108 

IX.     HIGHEST  POWERS  FOR  HIGHEST  PURPOSES,  125 
X.     THE   PRESENCE    OF   GOD  IN   His  WORLD 

IMMEDIATE  AND  PERSONAL,    .        .        .141 

XI.     GOD  is  HUMAN:  MAN  DIVINE,         .        .  158 
XII.     THE  RELIGIOUS  BELIEFS  OF  THE  EDUCATED 

MAN  OF  THE  TWENTIETH  CENTURY,     .  175 

XIII.  EDUCATION  THE  PERFECTION  OF  MAN,     .  197 

XIV.  THE  BEST  WORK, 215 


A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION  AND 
A  LIBERAL  FAITH 


THE  HIGHER  EDUCATION  AND  THE 
DIVINE  KINGDOM. 

"  And  Moses  was  learned  in  all  the  wisdom  of  the 
Egyptians." — Acts  vii.  22. 

MOSES  was  the  servant  of  God.  He 
was  also  the  pupil  of  the  Egyptian 
teachers.  He  set  forth  the  Ten 
Commandments,  but  he  knew  the  laws  of  men. 
Moses  was  in  Egypt  in  order  to  leave  Egypt. 
He  did  not  fear  that  pagan  learning  would  un- 
fit him  to  emancipate  a  holy  people.  He  may 
have  believed  that  pagan  learning  would  help 
him  to  emancipate  a  holy  people.  It  is  not  rash 
to  infer  that  the  education  of  Moses  did  aid 
him  in  the  deliverance  and  the  progress  of  the 
nation  of  Israel.  The  text,  therefore,  suggests 
my  subject:  "The  Higher  Education  Pro- 
motes the  Progress  of  God's  Kingdom/' 


•5      .   *A-  ^EBERAL  EDUCATION 


;  .-:  W.s  .acknowledge  that  some  minds  assent  to 
ri'his.pr4)positi€m-y/ith  hesitation.  God's  king- 
dom is  built  on  faith,  it  is  said.  And  the 
higher  education,  it  is  also  said,  is  antagonistic 
to  faith.  Thought  is  the  mother  of  doubt, 
philosophy  the  parent  of  atheism,  reasoning 
fosters  agnosticism.  The  gospel  of  science  is 
not  a  gospel  of  Christianity.  And  yet,  we 
know  that  truth  must  be  consistent  with  itself. 
The  gospel  of  the  rocks,  properly  interpreted, 
is  one  with  the  gospel  of  the  Bible  properly  in- 
terpreted. Strange,  if  thought  about  God 
should  result  in  a  disbelief  in  the  very  being 
of  God.  Strange,  if  the  more  of  light  men 
receive  the  less  they  should  know  Him  who 
is  light.  No;  the  higher  education  is  a  part 
of  the  progress  of  the  divine  kingdom.  The 
higher  education  and  that  kingdom  cannot  be 
enemies.  The  two  are  one  in  origin — God. 
The  two  are  one  in  aim — the  incarnation  of 
divinity.  The  two  are  one  in  material  to  be 
worked  upon — human  character.  The  two  are 
one  in  method — truth  in  life,  and  life  in  truth. 
The  two  are  one  in  motive — divine  inspiration. 
There  is  an  education  antagonistic  to  the 
progress  of  God's  kingdom,  but  it  is  not  the 
higher,  but  the  lower  education.  It  is  the 
education  which  is  materialistic  in  philosophy, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH  3 

agnostic  in  result,  narrow  in  outlook,  super- 
ficial, without  breadth,  content  to  study  mat- 
ter without  looking  through  and  beyond  the 
material,  content  to  observe  law  without  a  sug- 
gestion of  a  lawmaker,  content  to  detect  de- 
sign, without  reflecting  upon  the  designer. 
Such  education  retards  the  progress  of  God's 
kingdom,  but  such  an  education  is  not  the 
higher;  it  is  the  lower.  Its  members  are 
members  neither  of  the  School  at  Athens,  nor 
of  the  School  at  Jerusalem. 

The  particular  part  of  my  subject  to  which 
I  ask  your  attention  is  the  ways  in  which  the 
higher  education  promotes  the  progress  of 
God's  kingdom. 

First:  The  higher  education  promotes  the 
progress  of  God's  kingdom  by  giving  guid- 
ance to  the  forces  of  this  kingdom.  The 
higher  education  belongs  to  the  intellect. 
The  intellect  is  that  part  of  man's  com- 
plex being  which  it  first  touches  and  embraces. 
The  intellect  is  the  directing  force  in  man. 
The  intellect  indicates;  measures  values;  an- 
alyzes results;  points  out  methods;  discrimi- 
nates, reasons,  judges.  The  higher  education 
is  concerned  with  truths,  and  not  with  truths 
only,  but  with  the  truth  of  truths.  The  lower 
education  has  to  do  with  individual  facts;  the 


4  A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

higher  with  the  relation  of  facts.  The  prog- 
ress of  the  divine  kingdom  must  be  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  laws  which  represent  the 
relations  of  truth.  If  the  kingdom  of  God, 
when  guided  by  the  human  mind,  should  be 
in  ways  antagonistic  to  those  laws,  its  move- 
ments are  not  a  progress,  but  a  regress.  If 
the  kingdom  of  God  is  guided  by  these  laws, 
its  progress  is  in  unfolding  the  divine  will 
among  men.  Where  can  we  look  for  such 
directing  control  except  to  the  best  training 
of  the  schools?  I  confess  the  power  of  Al- 
mighty God;  I  confess  the  divine  inspiring 
presence;  I  confess  obedience  to  the  will  of 
divinity;  but,  I  also  know  that  God  has  com- 
mitted the  progress  of  his  kingdom  to  human 
minds  and  hearts  and  hands.  I  remember  the 
command,  Go  ye  into  all  the  world  and 
preach.  Go,  with  your  mind  clear  and  strong; 
go,  with  your  heart  clean.  It  is,  therefore, 
no  blasphemy  to  say,  that  the  mind  of  man,  il- 
lumined, disciplined,  comprehensive  to  grasp, 
keen  to  distinguish,  is  to  direct  the  progress 
of  this  kingdom.  Commerce  has  gone  down 
into  the  oceans  of  the  world  as  a  diver,  to 
bring  up  the  precious  pearl  for  its  own  enrich- 
ment and  adornment.  Education  has  gone 
down  into  the  same  ocean  as  a  rescuer  of  a 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH  5 

drowning  man,  to  lift  up  and  to  train  a  human 
spirit.  Education  teaches  that  a  soul  has  more 
value  than  a  jewel,  as  a  seed  has  more  possi- 
bilities than  a  diamond.  Why  did  the  Christ 
call  Paul  to  be  the  great  apostle?  Why  were 
not  Peter,  or  James,  or  John  thus  honored? 
Why  do  scholarship  and  piety  unite  in  the 
study  of  the  writings  of  Paul?  Paul's  was  a 
noble  mind,  nobly  trained.  It  is  not  Peter 
the  Hermit,  who  preaches  the  Crusades — 
Crusades  which  wasted  the  best  blood  of  the 
best  part  of  the  world  for  hundreds  of  years, 
who  is  called  to  the  highest  place,  but  it  is 
Luther,  who,  with  keen  eye,  detects,  and  with 
mighty  robustness  urges  the  great  doctrines  of 
faith.  It  is  not  John  Brown, — bold,  true,  ag- 
gressive, enthusiastic  soul, — but  it  is  Charles 
Sumner  that  determines  the  course  of  na- 
tions. 

Great  movements  are  created  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  intelligence,  whether  they  be  created 
and  guided  by  Abraham  Lincoln  or  George 
Washington.  The  men  who  have  controlled 
the  destinies  of  England  in  the  last  hundred 
years  have  been  men  of  profound  intellectual 
penetration,  large  foresight,  comprehensive- 
ness of  vision,  accuracy  of  reasoning.  When 
God  wants  a  great  work  done  he  wants  a 


6  A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

great  man;  and  a  great  man  is  a  man  great  in 
his  power  of  comprehending  truths;  great  in 
his  power  to  infer  from  these  truths  duties; 
great  in  his  capacity  to  be  inspired  for  doing. 
And  where  shall  God  look  with  hopefulness 
such  men  to  find?  Where,  unless  among  those 
whose  minds  are  well  trained?  When  God 
wants  foreign  missions  to  be  planted  he  goes 
to  the  college.  When  God  wants  foreign  mis- 
sions to  be  carried  on  he  goes  to  the  colleges. 
Some  men  graduate  at  college  who  are  fools. 
Some  men  have  the  best  results  of  a  college 
training  who  never  saw  a  college;  but  the  his- 
tory of  all  aggressive  Christian  service  proves 
that  the  best  guidance  of  it  has  been  by  those 
who  were  trained  in  and  by  the  higher  educa- 
tion. This  is  in  accordance  with  the  nature 
of  things.  Miracles  have  ceased.  Progress  is 
made  under  obedience  to  laws.  These  laws 
are  in  part  intellectual.  These  laws  respect 
facts.  They  recognize  the  verities.  These 
laws  are  judgment,  clearness  of  vision,  power 
of  weighing  evidence,  allegiance  to  truth. 
These  laws  are  the  direct  and  necessary  result 
of  the  higher  education.  God  does  not  break 
laws  to  save  foreign  missions.  God  gives 
every  missionary,  every  man,  a  brain.  Pious 
fools  are  as  bad  as  foolish  pietists.  Practical 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH  7 

faith  rests  on  reason  as  philosophical  reason 
rests  on  faith.  To  hope  for  the  highest  prog- 
ress in  divine  affairs  in  the  world,  without  the 
keen  discipline  of  fine  education,  is  like  hoping 
for  a  swift  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  in  a 
steamer  having  valves  loose  and  piston  rods 
bent.  The  better  trained  the  reason  and 
the  heart  through  education  the  nearer  the 
reason  that  the  heart  approach  to  that 
condition  in  which  man  was  when  God 
breathed  into  his  dust  the  breath  of  life. 
The  best  education  is  to  be  taught  to  think. 
The  best  education  has  as  its  cause  and  as  its 
result,  to  think.  And  to  think  is  the  chief 
human  method  for  promoting  the  divine  king- 
dom through  wise  direction. 

Second:  Higher  education  aids  the  prog- 
ress of  the  divine  kingdom  by  giving  compre- 
hensiveness to  our  thought  of  this  kingdom. 
Education  broadens.  Narrowness  of  vision, 
plus  ferocity  of  will,  makes  the  bigot.  Educa- 
tion puts  an  end  to  bigotry  through  making 
the  vision  broad  and  through  the  train- 
ing of  the  will.  Mental  training  is  the  prod- 
uct of  wide  knowledge,  and  wide  knowledge 
is  the  fruit  of  mental  training.  If  the  acquir- 
ing of  knowledge  is  a  sharp  chisel  to  carve  the 
mind  into  a  fitting  power,  the  mind  thus 


8  A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

carved   becomes  a   reaper  to  gather  truth's 
golden  harvest. 

The  human  mind  thus  disciplined,  broad- 
ened, is  able  to  interpret  the  divine  kingdom 
in  its  wide  relations.  This  kingdom  is  no  less 
narrow  than  the  divine  omnipresence.  This 
kingdom  is  no  less  profound  than  the  depths 
of  infinity.  This  kingdom  is  no  less  high  than 
the  exaltation  of  omnipotence.  If  beings 
dwell  on  planets  other  than  the  earth,  they  in 
this  kingdom  have  a  share.  If  unseen  spir- 
itual existences  move  about  us,  they  of  this 
kingdom  are  citizens.  The  spirits  of  the  re- 
deemed are  within  its  realms,  and  the  souls  of 
the  lost  are  lost  far  more  to  themselves  than 
they  are  to  Him  who  is  still  the  father  of 
prodigal  sons.  This  kingdom  knows  no  limi- 
tations. Upon  all  that  is  worthy  it  lays  its 
scepter,  and  says,  "  This  is  mine."  The  ships 
of  commerce  are  the  swift  shuttles  which 
weave  splendid  tapestries  for  the  coming  of 
its  king.  The  laws  of  trade  are  the  expres- 
sion of  its  eternal  principles.  The  discoveries 
of  nature's  forces  are  a  revelation  of  the 
agencies  which  it  commands;  all  applications 
and  adjustments  of  these  forces  are  simply 
thinking  God's  thoughts  after  him.  The 
fundamental  principles  of  the  human  heart  are 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH  9 

not  foreign  to  it,  for  this  kingdom  has  as  its 
supreme  power,  love.  Education  aids  the  hu- 
man mind  to  attain  such  conceptions,  wide 
and  deep.  Education  makes  the  mind  as  a 
dome,  lofty,  symmetrical,  comprehensive,  rest- 
ing on  the  eternal  pillars  of  the  universe. 
Education  makes  the  mind,  as  the  eagle,  to 
soar,  and  as  the  lion  before  peril,  a  dove  in 
life's  disaster,  to  bring  back  the  olive  branch 
of  promise.  Education  helps  man  to  live  in  an 
atmosphere  of  truth,  which  is  at  once  a  breath 
and  a  vision;  to  make  every  day  a  microscope 
for  studying  the  infinite  profundities  lying  in 
a  drop  of  water  or  in  a  grain  of  sand;  and  to 
make  every  night  a  telescope  for  bringing  the 
worlds  of  great  truths  close  by.  The  least 
educated  man  of  the  disciples  of  Christ  held 
the  longest  to  the  shell  of  Jewish  narrowness. 
The  best  educated  man  of  the  apostles  was  the 
apostle  to  the  Gentiles. 

Such  a  conception  hastens  the  coming  of 
the  divine  kingdom.  Such  a  conception 
makes  the  progress  of  this  kingdom  coter- 
minous and  contemporaneous  with  the  prog- 
ress of  the  noblest  of  present  doing.  Such  a 
conception  at  once  brings  the  divine  kingdom 
down  to  the  earth  and  lifts  the  earth  to  the 
divine  kingdom.  Such  a  conception  makes 


10         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

the  secular  sacred  without  making  the  sacred 
secular.  Every  existence  comes  to  bear  rela- 
tion to  the  Supreme.  The  pebble  which  a 
child's  hand  lifts  changes  the  center  of  grav- 
ity of  the  universe.  Every  act  and  event  comes 
to  be  embraced  within  the  all-embracing  di- 
vine rule. 

Third:  Education  promotes  the  coming  of 
the  divine  kingdom  by  giving  a  richness  to 
our  thought  of  this  kingdom.  If  the  king  of 
this  kingdom  was  born  in  a  manger,  the  throne 
of  this  king  is  of  pure  gold,  the  walls  of  his 
city  are  built  of  precious  stones,  and  the  gates 
of  these  walls  of  pearls.  If  the  rallying  cry 
of  the  progress  of  this  kingdom  is  self-sacri- 
fice, this  self-sacrifice  is  such  an  emptying  of 
self  that  self  may  become  not  an  emptiness, 
but  rather  an  embodying  of  all.  The  self- 
sacrifice  of  Christianity  is  the  self-sacrifice  of 
the  lover,  who  loses  self  and  gains  what  he 
thinks  is  worth  far  more  than  self.  The 
higher  education  calls  every  noble  power  into 
the  service  and  rule  of  this  divine  kingdom. 
It  demands,  and  it  receives  the  noblest  con- 
tributions for  the  progress  of  this  kingdom. 
It  abominates  the  meretricious.  It  despises 
tinsel  and  sham.  It  condemns  the  unworthy 
and  the  mean.  It  glories  in  the  true,  the  good, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          11 

the  beautiful.  It  gives  its  truth  for  the  en- 
lightenment of  earth's  dark  places;  it  bestows 
its  goodness  for  the  betterment  of  man;  it 
discloses  its  beauty  for  the  adornment  of  the 
beautiful.  It  is  indeed  true  that  in  dungeons 
of  darkness  and  helpless  misery  have  human 
souls  met  their  God,  and  there  found  the  pres- 
ence and  the  comfort  of  their  God  blessed.  It 
is  true  that  in  purity  of  heart  and  not  simply  in 
the  clearness  of  intellectual  comprehension  lies 
the  divine  vision.  It  is  true  that  the  pathway 
from  earth  to  heaven  does  lie  outside  as  well 
as  within  cathedral  walls,  but  it  is  also  true 
that  the  larger  and  the  richer  love  of  human- 
ity into  which  comes  the  kingdom  of  God  has 
for  an  instructive  and  constructive  force  the 
noble  training  of  the  mind.  This  training  gave 
to  the  eye  of  man  to  see  in  void  space  the 
cathedral,  and  gave  to  the  mind  of  man  the 
skill  to  devise  and  to  the  arm  of  man  the  power 
to  lift  flying  buttress  and  groined  roof.  This 
training  gave  to  the  heart  and  lip  the  Chris- 
tian hymn  and  the  oratorio,  which  are  as  the 
preludes  to  angels'  songs.  This  training  gave 
to  the  painter  the  skill  to  present  on  unfading 
canvas  the  infinite  love  of  God  in  the  face  of 
the  mother  of  Christ,  and  also  the  infinite 
strength  of  man  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ, 


12         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

his  son.  Take  from  human  thought  and  hu- 
man life  the  rich  works  of  noble  men  inspired 
by  rich  and  noble  purpose,  and  the  divine 
kingdom  still  is,  but  it  is,  compared  to  its 
present  state,  as  the  bare  cabin  of  the  savage 
is  to  the  Christian  home.  Take  from  human 
thought  and  life  the  rich  works  of  noble  men, 
inspired  by  rich  and  noble  purpose,  and  the 
divine  kingdom  still  lives,  but  compared  to 
its  present  rate  of  large  and  swift  and  magnifi- 
cent progress,  it  moves  as  the  caravan  moves 
across  the  desert.  As  for  hundreds  of  years 
the  best  thought  of  Europe  was  built  into  the 
stones  in  the  Gothic  cathedral,  and  the  cathe- 
dral gave  beauty  and  glory  to  the  stones,  so 
the  higher  education  is  now  giving  a  nobility 
of  character  without  coldness,  and  a  beauty  of 
spirit  free  from  selfishness,  and  a  richness  of 
life  devoid  of  luxuriousness.  Thus  is  pro- 
moted the  coming  of  this  kingdom  in  the 
hearts  and  haunts  of  men. 

Members  of  the  graduating  class :  This  col- 
lege has  failed  in  its  opportunity  to  you,  its 
sixty-fifth  class,  if  it  have  failed  to  impress  upon 
you  the  truth  that  there  is  a  kingdom  of  God, 
and  that  this  kingdom  is  daily  coming.  It  has 
also  failed  in  its  duty,  if  it  have  failed  to  im- 
press upon  you  the  truth  that  your  education 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         13 

is  to  promote  the  coming  of  this  kingdom. 
What  I  have  tried  to  say,  therefore,  to-night, 
is  simply  a  swift  sketch  of  the  chief  work 
of  this  college.  I  am  persuaded  that  you 
know  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  this  king- 
dom, and  I  see  in  your  faces  symbols  of  your 
power  to  aid  this  progress.  You  are  fitted 
above  most  to  guide  and  to  control  its  onward 
movement.  You  are  fitted  above  most  to 
show  how  wide  is  its  inclusive  thought;  how 
embracing  the  arms  of  its  endeavor.  You  are 
fitted  above  most  to  make  beautiful  and  rich 
and  noble  men's  conceptions  of  this  kingdom. 
Your  opportunities  will  be  great — as  great  as 
the  world.  Your  responsibilities  will  be  great 
— as  great  as  duty  itself.  Your  powers  will 
be  great — as  great  as  God  and  as  yourselves 
can  make  them.  Go  forth;  illustrate  in  your 
living  that  the  noblest  culture  is  an  angel 
sent  by  God  to  men.  Prove  that  high  schol- 
arship and  high  faith  are  the  two  foci  whence 
are  drawn  the  ellipse  of  perfect  character.  Will 
you  live  for  God?  With  your  mind  love  God 
no  less  than  with  your  soul  and  your  heart? 
Be  a  Moses.  Choose  suffering  with  God  and 
with  God's  people  before  transient  triumphing 
with  wickedness  and  weakness.  Be  a  Moses. 
Go  up  into  the  mountain  peaks  of  loneliness 


14         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

to  be  with  your  God;  to  receive  from  his  di- 
vine hand  divine  commandments.  Be  a  Moses. 
Let  the  ocean  of  impassable  difficulties  divide, 
and  provide  a  swift  and  glorious  progress  for 
your  feet.  Be  a  Moses.  May  the  wand  of 
your  influence,  moved  by  God,  cause  the  rocks 
of  circumstances  to  gush  forth  with  the  satis- 
fying waters  of  contentment.  Be  a  Moses.  And 
when  at  last  you  approach  the  land  of  prom- 
ise, toward  which  the  God  of  Moses  and  your 
God  has  been  guiding  you,  may  you  ascend 
some  lonely  Nebo,  and  may  God  grant  to 
you  a  vision  of  the  prospect  toward  which 
you  have  helped  men,  and,  there,  after  life's 
long  journey,  may  you  fall  asleep  in  that  place 
of  rest  which  God  gives  to  every  beloved  and 
faithful  servant.  That  grave  men  may  know 
and  may  bring  the  offerings  of  their  love  and 
veneration  to  it.  That  grave  men  may  not 
know,  but  it  is  enough  if  God  knows  it  and  if 
his  peace  abides  upon  it. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         15 


II 

GOING  INTO  THE  WORLD 

••  These  twelve  Jesus  sent  forth."— Matthew  x.  5. 

THE  college  is  apostolic.  Its  members 
are  sent  forth.  The  missionary  ele- 
ment is  as  conspicuous  in  the  college 
as  it  was  among  the  twelve  or  the  seventy  of 
Christ's  followers.  Men  come  to  college  from 
what  we  call  the  "  world  "  in  order  to  go  from 
college  back  into  the  world.  The  college  re- 
ceives in  order  to  give  forth.  The  college  re- 
ceives boys  of  eighteen  in  order  to  graduate 
men.  This  college,  founded  for  Christ  and 
the  church,  is  sending  you  forth,  O  men  of 
1892.  Our  text  describes  the  scene:  "These 
twelve  Jesus  sent  forth."  The  college  sends 
you  forth — you  who  have  spent  four  years 
within  these  college  walls. 

And  what  have  these  years  in  college  been 
to  you  or  done  for  you?  What  has  the  col- 
lege done,  that  it  may  be  said  to  send  you 
forth?  What  is  the  type  of  manhood  which 


16         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

this  college  and  every  other  worthy  college 
is  seeking  to  train  and  to  train  in  apostolic  mo- 
tives? This  college  desires  to  train  in  you 
largeness  of  personality.  It  wants  to  make 
you  strong.  It  aims  to  make  you  great.  It 
desires  to  discipline  individuality.  It  seeks  to 
make  you  yourselves  into  larger  and  better 
selves. 

You  are  to  be  yourself — the  largest  and 
most  perfect  self.  The  college  is  supposed  to 
train  by  pruning.  The  knife  is  its  symbol. 
The  college  does  cut  off  the  superfluous 
branches  of  the  vine  of  character,  in  order  to 
strengthen  the  vital  forces  of  the  vine  itself. 
It  loses  to  save.  It  lops  off  leaf  to  get  fruit. 
The  college  does  lessen  the  size  of  the  dia- 
mond of  manhood,  in  order  to  gain  greater 
purity  and  a  more  splendid  brilliance  and  a 
larger  value.  The  running  track  is  the  sym- 
bol of  the  college.  The  college  is  converting 
fatty  tissue  of  large  ambition  into  laborious 
muscle.  It  creates  compactness  to  get  force. 
The  symbol  of  the  college  is  a  book.  The  col- 
lege teaches  you  knowledge,  but  it  is  your 
knowledge,  and  in  that  same  teaching  each 
scholar  learns  a  different  lesson.  The  col- 
lege teaches  you  to  think,  but  the  method  of 
thinking  is  your  own.  The  college  teaches 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          17 

you  to  compare,  reason,  judge;  but  each  act 
of  comparison,  reasoning,  judgment,  is  your 
own  act.  Your  best  intellectual  self  the  col- 
lege has  been  trying  to  train.  Your  best 
ethical  self  the  college  has  been  trying  to  train. 
A  knowledge  of  the  laws  of  the  moral  uni- 
verse the  college  endeavors  to  teach.  Obedi- 
ence to  these  laws  it  seeks  to  inspire.  It  tries 
to  make  the  right  a  principle  of  being,  and  the 
good  an  object  of  attainment. 

It  endeavors  to  restrain  the  impulse  of  appe- 
tite, to  crush  the  unworthy  desire,  to  guide  the 
worthy  wish,  to  purify  affection,  but  it  never 
forgets  that  the  appetite,  desire,  and  affection 
of  each  man  are  his  own,  a  part  of  his  in- 
dividual, personal  being.  It  holds  aloft  moral 
ideals,  but  it  urges  each  man  to  run  on  his 
own  feet  toward  them,  and  by  his  own  hand 
to  grasp  the  waiting  prize.  Mr.  Lowell  has 
said  that  the  more  general  purpose  of  the  col- 
lege "  is  to  set  free,  to  supple,  and  to  train 
the  faculties  in  such  wise  as  shall  make  them 
most  effective  for  whatever  task  life  may  af- 
terwards set  them ;  for  the  duties  of  life  rather 
than  for  its  business,  and  to  open  windows  on 
every  side  of  the  mind,  where  thickness  of  wall 
does  not  make  it  impossible."  "  Let  it  be  our 
hope/'  says  Mr.  Lowell,  speaking  also  before  a 


18         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

college  audience,  "  to  make  a  gentleman  of 
every  youth  who  is  put  under  our  charge;  not  a 
conventional  gentleman,  but  a  man  of  culture, 
a  man  of  intellectual  resource,  a  man  of  public 
spirit,  a  man  of  refinement,  with  that  good 
taste  which  is  the  conscience  of  the  mind,  and 
that  conscience  which  is  the  good  taste  of  the 
soul."  Nobly  spoken  are  these  words  by  Mr. 
Lowell,  but  he  would  also  say  that  each  man's 
faculties  and  powers  are  to  be  trained  in  ac- 
cordance with  their  foreordained  tendency  and 
inclination,  and  also  that  each  man — each 
gentleman,  was  to  keep  his  own  individuality, 
to  develop  that  individuality  into  the  largest 
and  best  manhood. 

This  large  personality  is  a  development 
from  within,  outward.  The  college  is  to  aid 
in  this  development.  The  college  is  not  to 
supplant  the  individuality  of  the  student  by 
its  own  corporate  individuality.  Some  col- 
leges do  thus  seem  to  be  supplanters;  but  the 
college  is  to  summon  all  its  powers  to  draw 
out  the  forces  of  the  student  himself.  This  is 
education.  I  would  not  have  you  known  as 
Adelbert  men,  or  Western  Reserve  men,  ex- 
cept as  Adelbert  and  Western  Reserve  stand 
for  the  highest,  purest,  strongest,  largest  per- 
sonality. The  college  is  not  to  grind  out  its 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          19 

annual  grist,  in  which  every  kernel  is  like 
every  other  kernel, — a  machine-made  prod- 
uct in  which  each  individual  is  like  every 
other, — but  rather  this  college  should  graduate 
men  who  are  hand-made,  mind-made,  heart- 
made,  soul-made:  a  result  in  which  mind  has 
been  fed  by  mind,  heart  by  heart,  soul  by  soul; 
individuality  always  respected,  individuality 
always  developed. 

Individuality  is  never  to  become  eccentric- 
ity. Personality  is  never  to  stand  for  oddity. 
A  strong  personality  is  to  be  as  a  mountain 
range,  composed  of  the  same  material  as  the 
plain,  yet,  rising  above  the  plain;  lifting  the 
plain  skyward,  its  highest  peaks  hidden  in  the 
cloud  of  mystery,  its  slopes  resting  firmly  on 
the  solid  earth.  A  strong  personality  is  a  part 
of  humanity,  but  it  seems  to  be  more  and 
higher  than  humanity,  lifting  humanity  itself 
above  its  low-lying  plains  of  being. 

Into  this  humanity  you  are  sent  forth.  Sent 
into  the  same  world  into  which  Christ  sent  his 
apostles,  sent  into  the  same  world  into  which 
the  Christ  came.  From  this  world  you  can- 
not escape,  any  more  than  Mont  Blanc  can  es- 
cape from  the  earth.  From  this  world  you 
should  not  wish  to  escape.  I  know  that  you 
stand  for  scholarship,  and  scholarship  is  sup- 


20         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

posed  to  be  esoteric  and  monastic.  I  know 
that  you  stand  for  culture,  and  culture  is  sup- 
posed to  be  dainty.  As  if  limitation  were  su- 
perior to  breadth.  As  if  confinement  were 
better  than  freedom.  As  if  daintiness  were 
nobler  than  strength.  You  can  make  your 
life  monastic,  and  its  monasticism  will  be 
the  loneliness  of  the  grave.  Ah,  yes,  you 
can  make  your  life  a  series  of  petty,  dainty 
prettinesses,  or  of  dainty,  pretty  pettiness.  Ah, 
no,  you  cannot;  your  will  rebels  against  such 
an  inane  fate.  No,  you  are  of  the  world,  and 
in  the  world  you  must  be.  This  world  of 
yours  is  a  very  good  world,  too.  The  best 
you  have  ever  known.  The  best  you  will 
know,  I  hope,  for  three  score  years.  It  is  not 
a  bad  world,  as  some  say.  You  are  not  to  be 
a  Christian  pessimist,  and  to  hide  yourself  in 
the  monastery  of  your  selfhood  against  a 
world  whose  temptations  you  cannot  meet. 
Do  not  be  a  St.  Anthony.  You  are  not  to  be 
a  philosophic  pessimist,  and  to  write  books 
against  the  world.  Do  not  be  a  Schopen- 
hauer. It  is  a  world  of  badness  and  of  good- 
ness strangely  intermingled;  of  weakness  and 
of  might;  of  poverty  and  of  riches;  of  sin  and 
of  purity.  It  is  like  the  image  of  gold 
and  of  clay,  of  brass  and  of  iron.  It  is  a  self- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          21 

ish  world,  anxious  for  glory  and  fame,  place 
and  power.  It  is  a  self-sacrificing  world,  hold- 
ing truth  better  than  fame,  duty  than  dollars, 
character  than  place.  It  is  a  self-satisfied 
world,  folding  its  arms  in  its  dainty  strength. 
It  is  a  needy  world,  stretching  forth  empty 
palms.  It  is  a  far-sighted  world,  seeing  the 
golden  argosies  sailing  the  remote  seas  of  its 
worthy  endeavors.  It  is  a  blind  world,  like 
some  Polyphemus  clutching  the  rocks  in  its 
power  to  hurl  at  innocent  foes.  It  is  an  in- 
dolent world,  content  with  itself  and  its  be- 
longings. It  is  an  ambitious  world,  moving 
forward  as  some  great  engine,  with  the  force 
and  the  swiftness  of  the  lightning.  Of  this 
world  you  are  a  part.  Into  it  you  must  go 
and  stay.  You  are  to  make  up  your  mind  and 
your  heart  what  you  will  do  to  and  for  this 
world,  and  what  relation  to  it  you  will  bear. 
Will  you  add  an  ounce  of  selfishness  to  its 
tons  of  self-hood?  or  will  you  lay  the  stone  of 
truth  in  its  temple,  and  make  a  sacrifice  on 
its  altar  of  prayer  and  of  song?  Will  you 
stand  cold  as  stone  and  silent  as  a  statue  in 
mild  disdain  of  the  struggling  masses,  or  into 
some  empty  palm  will  you  lay  your  own  right 
hand?  Will  you  make  its  blindness  more 
blind,  and  its  madness  more  mad,  or  will  you 


22         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

with  broad  wisdom  and  noble  courage  en- 
deavor to  see  clearly,  to  guide  rightly,  to  do 
well?  This  world  needs  you,  my  friends.  This 
world  has  waited  thousands  of  years  for  you. 
The  world"  wants  you  to  hold  truth  better  than 
name,  duty  than  dollars,  character  than  place. 
The  world  wants  you  to  lay  some  stone  of 
truth  in  its  temple.  The  world  wants  you  to 
be,  in  the  new  fields  of  its  endeavors,  not  a 
Ulysses,  but  rather  the  world  wants  you  to 
be  as  someone  else,  also  named  in  the 
Odyssey.  Do  you  know  who  is  the  hero  of 
the  Odyssey?  Is  it  he  who  has  sailed 
many  a  tempest-vexed  sea  and  vanquished 
many  a  wily,  mighty  foe?  Is  it  he  who 
escaped  from  Circe's  cheats,  and  was  deaf 
to  the  Sirens'  honeyed  songs?  Is  it  he  who 
bent  his  mighty  bow  to  slay  his  would-be 
supplanters?  Is  it  he  who,  in  the  teeth  of 
every  charm,  remained  true  to  his  own  Penel- 
ope? Ah,  no,  the  hero  of  the  Odyssey  is  not 
Ulysses.  The  hero  of  this  poem  is  one  whose 
name  you  hardly  will  recognize — Eumaeus. 
And  who  is  Eumaeus?  Eumaeus  is  the  swine- 
herd. The  "  noble  swineherd,"  as  he  is  called, 
who  guards  with  care  the  estate  of  Ulysses, 
and  whom  Ulysses,  returning,  finds  in  his 
place  doing  his  humble  duties.  A  hero — yes 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         23 

a  hero,  you  desire  to  be.  But  faithfulness  to 
simple  duty  is  the  heroism  to  which  the  world 
calls  you. 

In  the  Western  Reserve,  and  in  associ- 
ation with  this  college,  there  lived,  some 
years  ago,  a  man  to  whom  the  president  of 
the  college  of  which  he  was  a  graduate,  ad- 
dressed a  letter.  It  bore  date,  "  Williams  Col- 
lege, June  10,  1880:  The  hour  has  struck 
sooner  than  I  thought.  You  know  I  thought 
it  would  come,  and  now  .that  it  is  come  I 
rejoice  with  you.  I  congratulate  you,  not  only 
on  your  nomination,  but  on  the  manner  of  it, 
and  the  enthusiasm  with  which  it  is  received. 
The  students  here  are  wild  over  it,  and  I  care 
not  how  wild,  if  they  will  but  learn  the  lesson 
there  is  in  it.  It  is  one  reason  of  my  joy  that 
there  is  a  lesson  in  it.  How  well  I  remem- 
ber those  early  struggles,  and  your  manly 
bearing  under  them,  the  confidence  you  at 
once  gave  your  instructors  and  received  from 
them,  and  the  combination,  so  apparently  easy, 
and  yet  so  rare  among  students,  of  a  genial 
spirit  with  pure  habits  and  high  aims  uni- 
formly pursued.  That  was  the  beginning  of  a 
course  in  which  you  have  not  faltered,  and  the 
lesson  therefore  is,  that  this  honor  is  the  result 
of  no  accident,  but  of  achievement  by  steady 


24         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

work  in  scholarship  and  statesmanship,  so  that 
when  the  nation  called,  the  man  was  there." 

Thus  Mark  Hopkins  wrote  James  A.  Gar- 
field.  Crises  are  always  striking,  and  crises 
will  at  no  distant  day  strike  in  your  life.  When 
a  crisis  does  strike,  the  result  of  its  striking 
depends  upon  whether  you  are  a  man. 

But,  as  you  go  forth  into  this  world,  neither 
you  nor  I  can  forget  that  you  are  going  forth 
into  a  world  more  the  world  of  God  than  of 
man.  The  world  has  universal  relations. 
Into  these  relations  you  come.  You  cannot 
put  them  off.  You  would  not  put  them  off. 
But  your  chief  relation  is  to  him  whom  we 
call  God :  God,  who  was  before  time :  God, 
who  shall  be  when  time  is  not:  God,  who 
was,  is  in  all  places :  God,  who  shall  be  when 
the  heavens  are  rolled  up  as  a  scroll:  God, 
our  creator,  our  preserver,  our  benefactor: 
God,  whose  being  we  dimly  shadow  forth  to 
ourselves  in  the  names  of  Father,  Son,  and 
Holy  Ghost:  God,  who  is  in  all  and  God  in 
whom  is  all.  This  God  has  defined  himself 
as  Love.  He  is  above  the  world;  inspire 
yourself  with  his  might.  He  is  in  the  world; 
with  him  commune.  He  is  compassion;  wrap 
your  soul  around  with  strength  of  his  consola- 
tions. A  revelation  he  has  made  to  the  world, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         25 

and  he  is  the  author  in  a  sense  other  than 
that  in  which  he  is  the  author  of  other  vol- 
umes of  what  we  call  the  Bible.  The  book 
is  inspired,  for  it  inspires  men.  It  is  a  human 
book,  for  its  writers  were  men.  It  is  a  divine 
book,  for  its  author  was  God.  It  was  given  to 
man,  not  for  its  scientific  teaching,  not  for 
its  secular  history,  but  as  a  history,  as  a 
prophecy  of  God's  endeavors  to  bless  and  to 
redeem  man.  This  book  thus  receive  and  use. 
Obey  its  commands,  remember  its  precepts, 
follow  its  suggestions,  live  the  life  it  com- 
mends. 

But  also,  in  this  world  of  God  and  of  man 
you  find  what  is  called  "  the  church."  Some 
of  you  are  its  formal  members.  I  wish  you  all 
were.  The  church:  it  is  the  church  of  the 
Son  of  God.  Its  origin  is  the  principle  of 
divine  love.  Its  history  is  the  history  of  hu- 
man redemption.  It  is  the  church  of  the  Son 
of  Man.  It  embraces  all  those  who  accept  the 
principle  of  Divine  Love  and  endeavor  to  obey 
the  duties  which  this  love  reveals.  "  It  in- 
cludes all  those  who  are  predestinated,"  says 
Wiclif.  "  It  embraces  all  those  who  hold  the 
divine  word,  and  observe  the  sacraments," 
says  Luther.  "  It  is  the  visible  organization 
where  pure  doctrine  is  taught,"  says  Me- 


26         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

lancthon.  "  It  is  the  society  in  which  every 
newborn  soul  is  a  component  part,"  says 
Schleiermacher.  This  church  is  worthy  of 
your  love,  is  worthy  of  the  service  of  your  de- 
votion, and  of  the  devotion  of  your  service.  I 
recognize  its  limitations.  I  am  well  aware 
of  its  imperfections,  but  never  will  you  find 
in  this  world  of  God  and  of  man  an  agent 
more  worthy  of  your  co-operation  than  the 
church,  and  never  will  you  find  aim  more 
worthy  of  your  working  for  than  the  aim 
which  the  church  sets  before  itself.  It  is 
anointed  with  the  blood  of  martyrs.  The 
wisdom  of  the  Prophets  and  the  songs  of  the 
Angels  are  its  triumph.  Of  this  church  be- 
come a  member.  Thus,  into  the  world  of 
God,  with  the  Bible  of  God  in  one  hand,  and 
the  church  of  God  in  your  heart,  go  forth. 

You,  my  friends,  members  of  the  Class  of 
1892,  by  the  simple  fact  of  your  graduation 
are  sent  forth.  You  are  sent  forth  from  and 
by  this  college.  You  are  sent  forth  into  the 
world:  the  world  at  once  of  man  and  of 
God.  There  is  a  sadness  in  these  parting 
hours,  yet  for  these  parting  hours  you  came 
to  the  college  and  the  college  received  you. 
Here  you  stand  together.  After  these 
three  days  you  will  never  stand  together  as 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         27 

now.  These  days  are  the  point  whence  you 
will  go  forth  on  the  divine  purpose  into  the 
waiting  world.  Your  pathways  will  more 
and  more  widely  separate  as  the  days  increase. 
But,  also,  as  the  days  increase  your  path- 
ways will  gradually  converge,  and  at  some 
point  of  time  in  the  future  you  will  again  come 
together  at  one  and  the  same  point  in  space. 
From  this  world,  in  the  nearer  parts  of 
which  to-night  you  linger,  may  you 
come  forth  to  its  farther  borders,  into  that 
Eternal  World,  with  the  same  courage, 
strength,  hope,  and  triumph  with  which  you 
leave  this  college,  only  with  a  courage  more 
brave,  a  strength  more  strong,  a  hope  more 
vigorous,  a  triumph  more  victorious.  Thus, 
may  the  words  of  the  Christ,  which  to-night 
I  speak  to  you :  "  These  twelve  Jesus  sent 
forth,"  be  at  last  translated  into  the  invitation : 
"  Come  ye  blessed  of  my  Father,  inherit  the 
Kingdom  prepared  for  you  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world." 


28         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 


III. 

GREAT  FORCES  IN  THE  EDUCATION 
AND  LIFE  OF  WOMEN 

• '  And  he  took  his  staff  in  his  hand,  and  chose 
him  five  smooth  stones  out  of  the  brook,  and  put 
them  in  a  shepherd's  bag  which  he  had,  even  in  a 
scrip  ;  and  his  sling  was  in  his  hand;  and  he  drew 
near  to  the  Philistine." — i  Samuel  xvii.  40. 

SCENE  conspicuous,  though  common, 
this;  scene  of  youth,  inexperience,  weak- 
ness, innocence,  going  forth  the  first  time 
to  meet  age,  experience,  strength,  evil.  David 
is  facing  Goliath.  Every  life  has  its  youth,  its 
inexperience,  its  innocence,  its  weakness.  Every 
life  has  also  its  hour  when  it  first  stands  facing 
what  we  call  the  world.  Its  youth  faces  the 
world's  age,  its  inexperience  the  world's  ex- 
perience, its  innocence  the  world's  evil,  its 
feebleness  the  world's  might.  Such  an  hour 
is  this:  the  hour  when  a  woman  turns  her  back 
upon  her  college,  and  turns  her  face  towards 
humanity's  great  life.  When  thus  she  ad- 
vances and  stands,  what  is  her  need?  What 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          29 

should  she  have  to  overcome  this  giant  of  the 
world?  The  answer  is  not  remote.  Let  her 
equip  herself  as  David  was  equipped.  The 
question  and  the  answer  are  simply  a  part  of 
that  universal  question  and  answer  belonging 
to  all  life,  and  also  to  all  literature:  The  ques- 
tion of  individual  personality  in  its  first  rela- 
tions to  corporate  personality. 

But  to  the  specific  answer:  David  took  five 
smooth  stones.  The  stone  represents  com- 
pact force.  Force  diffused  is  of  worth.  The 
air  represents  such  force.  But  force  diffused 
is  rather  a  condition  than  an  agency,  and 
conditions  never  do  anything.  Compactness, 
condensation  promotes  power.  Crowd  Lake 
Erie  between  narrow  banks  and  you  have 
Niagara.  Put  electricity  into  one  bolt,  and, 
descending,  it  smites  with  the  swiftness  of 
light,  with  power  resistless.  Compel  it  to 
go  along  certain  ordained  ways,  and  electric- 
ity has  an  ear,  a  tongue,  an  eye.  The  tempta- 
tion of  modern  life  is  the  dissipation 
of  force.  The  temptation  of  American  life 
is  the  dissipation  of  force.  The  temp- 
tation of  the  American  woman  is  the  dissi- 
pation of  force.  Modern  American  life  de- 
mands much  of  woman.  Of  home  she  is  the 
creator;  in  church  the  laborer;  of  society  the 


30         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

pillar;  in  social  reforms  the  chief  speaker. 
The  American  woman  of  1892  will  do  more 
things  well  than  any  other  member  of  the  hu- 
man family,  but  for  this  simple  reason  we  sel- 
dom find  women  doing  certain  things  best. 
She  is  rather  content  with  second-rate  attain- 
ments in  many  fields  than  with  first-rate  in  a 
few.  The  college  is  made  to  create  personal 
force.  The  college  is  also,  and  more,  made  to 
adjust  forces,  to  transmute  scattering  forces 
into  compact  force.  The  college  is  not  set  to 
give  us  women  who  can  do  more  things  well, 
but  rather  women  who  can  do  fewer  things 
better — best.  Education  makes  forces  com- 
pact, and  projects  and  directs  them  toward 
specific  ends.  In  a  sense,  education,  in- 
stead of  broadening  what  we  call  woman's 
sphere  narrows  it.  Woman's  sphere  is  now 
altogether  too  broad.  Woman's  sphere,  like 
man's,  better  be  a  hemisphere.  In  the 
lower  social  realm,  woman's  sphere  is  the 
broadest.  There  she  serves  at  once  as  ox, 
farm  laborer,  housekeeper,  and  mother.  In 
the  highest  realm,  woman's  sphere  is  the 
smallest;  but  that  sphere  is  of  much  greater 
worth,  as  the  globe  of  silver  is  more  precious 
than  the  ball  of  iron.  The  work  of  the  world, 
we  are  told,  is  done  by  experts.  The  ex- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         31 

pert  is  one  who  has  twisted  the  strands 
of  many  forces  into  the  coil  of  one  force. 
Education  unites  woman's  forces  into  force. 
Education  does  this  through  that  power  which 
we  call  the  power  of  thinking — of  thinking 
clearly,  profoundly,  comprehensively,  swiftly, 
truly.  Education  facilitates  transmuting 
forces  into  force  through  the  power  of  choos- 
ing— of  choosing  in  accordance  with  the  wis- 
dom of  thought.  Here,  let  me  say,  lies  the 
chief  difference  between  the  old  education  and 
the  new  for  women.  The  old  education 
taught  the  multa,  but  did  not  teach  the  multum. 
It  crowded  the  many  and  not  the  much  into 
one  poor  brain.  And  how  did  the  old  educa- 
tion teach?  It  taught  in  the  same  methods 
by  which  one  goes  through  Europe  in  six 
months.  And  what  was  the  result  of  the  old 
education?  Knowing  a  bit  more  than  noth- 
ing about  everything,  and  knowing  what  was 
hardly  worth  knowing  about  anything.  The 
new  education  does  not  try  to  teach  multa  to 
each  woman,  but  does  try  to  teach  multum. 
It  converts  knowledge  into  character — into 
force.  It  is  not  much  in  name,  but  it  does 
propose  to  make  character  as  firm  as  the 
mountain  of  rock,  and  the  forces  of  character 
like  the  forces  of  nature. 


32         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

But  force,  it  may  be  said,  is  not  beauty, 
grace;  and  woman  is  the  minister  to  life's 
beauty,  life's  grace.  Therefore,  let  me  ask 
you  to  bear  in  mind  that  David  chose  not  only 
stones,  but  he  chose  smooth  stones.  I  am  will- 
ing to  grant  all  that  may  be  claimed  as  to  the 
importance  of  the  beautiful.  I  recognize  its 
ministry  and  exult  in  the  Fine  Arts — its  ser- 
vants and  agents;  but  I  also  know  that  force 
is  no  more  antagonistic  to  the  beautiful  than 
the  swiftness  of  the  flight  of  the  stars  is  op- 
posed to  their  shining,  or  the  strength  of  the 
elms  is  opposed  to  the  festoons  of  their 
branches,  or  that  the  mighty  powers  of  the 
earth  and  sky  are  opposed  to  the  majesties 
of  the  changing  seasons.  Aye,  rather, 
it  is  force  compact,  fittingly  used,  forceful, 
that  creates  the  beautiful.  Force  dissipated, 
superficial,  void,  is  the  slow-moving  that  cre- 
ates the  ugly.  Force  is  not  angular.  The 
planetary  and  stellar  bodies  move  in  curves  of 
beauty.  When  human  force  is  properly 
trained  and  used,  its  very  use  carries  along 
with  it  beauty.  The  more  swiftly  turns  the 
wheel  of  the  bicycle,  the  more  graceful  and 
steady  are  its  onward  goings. 

And  yet,  David  did  not  choose  smooth  stones 
because  of  their  beauty.  Rather  he  chose 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         33 

smooth  stones,  for  smooth  stones  are  the  more 
sure  of  hitting  the  mark.  Of  course  you  are 
to  have  an  aim,  but  you  are  to  choose  those 
qualities  which  will  cause  you  to  gain  your 
aim.  Adjust  means  to  ends,  choose  means 
which  are  the  surest  of  gaining  ends.  Apply- 
ing all  wisdom  you  will  fail  to  hit  often 
enough.  At  this  point  lies  the  argument  for 
a  college  education  for  both  the  girl  and  the 
boy. 

The  college  is  not  an  end,  but  an  agent. 
Among  the  ends  of  life  are  the  proper  doing 
of  one's  work,  increased  facilities  for  doing 
the  world's  work,  a  broadening  of  vision,  a 
purer  purity,  the  easier  ease  of  self-control, 
the  securing  of  a  richer  enrichment  of  one's 
being,  the  gaining  a  nobler  character.  And 
shall  not  the  college  be  an  agency  for  aiding 
man  or  woman  to  secure  these  aims?  Ap- 
plication, economy  in  the  use  of  force,  com- 
prehensiveness and  delicacy  of  thought,  the 
power  of  receiving  knowledge,  discipline, 
force:  do  not  these  aid  each  woman  toward 
greater  breadth  of  vision,  purity,  self-control, 
enrichment  of  character?  The  college  may 
make  one  a  better  housekeeper,  but  it  does 
more.  It  makes  a  larger  and  nobler  woman 
in  the  housekeeper.  The  college  makes  every 


34         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

boy  entering  a  commercial  life  a  better  mer- 
chant, but,  what  is  more,  it  helps  the  world 
and  himself  to  find  a  nobler,  larger  man  in  the 
merchant.  The  college  is  for  the  kitchen  and 
the  parlor;  for  the  office  and  the  forge;  for  the 
factory  and  the  shop;  but  it  is  more  for  simple 
humanity.  The  humanities  of  the  college 
course  are  for  the  humanity  of  life  itself. 
The  college  thus  creates  and  adjusts  great 
forces  to  the  greatest  aims. 

David  had  only  one  giant  to  kill,  and  one 
stone  properly  used  would  do  the  killing;  but 
David  took  five  stones.  Four  he  put  in  his 
shepherd's  bag.  The  first  fling  might  miss. 
He  had  forces  in  reserve.  Force  is  to  be  put 
forth,  and  to  be  forth-putting,  but  force 
enough  is  to  be  held  back  to  serve  the  forth- 
coming demands.  This  force  is  not  to  be 
great  knowledge.  Knowledge  is  no,  or  slight, 
power.  Force  lies  in  the  man — in  the  woman. 
Force  is  faculty  trained  to  facility.  The  brain 
is  not  to  be  a  granary,  but  a  grist  mill ;  not  to 
be  a  steam  boiler,  but  a  steam  engine.  Woman 
is  to  hold  herself  for  service  at  the  eleventh 
hour,  as  well  as  the  first.  Woman  is  to  do, 
and  is  to  do  constantly.  The  college  is  to  give 
staying  power.  The  fool's  bolt  is  soon  shot. 
College  women  are  most  remote  from  fools. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         35 

Goliaths  are  not  single  giants.  Any  week  may 
be  a  Philistia,  out  of  which  some  Goliath  may 
swagger  forth.  What  perils  may  come  to  your 
individual  life,  I  know  not.  They  may  be,  or 
may  not  be,  organized  hardness  of  heart,  hy- 
pocrisy, jealousy,  narrowness  of  nature,  disin- 
tegration of  noble  powers,  but  if  these  are  the 
perils,  you  are  to  have  force  as  a  taut  spring 
to  project  the  missile  which  shall  put  an  end 
to  these  perils.  There,  too,  are  dangers — 
dangers  of  the  body  social.  The  ravages  of 
sin,  the  blight  of  nipping  poverty,  the  petrify- 
ing of  social  distinctions — these  are,  and  these 
represent  evils  against  which  you  should  have 
your  sling  in  your  hand.  The  training  of 
these  years,  close,  accurate  thinking,  broad 
scholarship  are  to  give  to  you  a  force  suffi- 
cient and  efficient  for  putting  down  these  per- 
ils. Your  intellect  is  to  be  an  instrument 
for  weighing  evidence;  like  scales  to  detect 
the  finest  variation;  like  scales,  to  receive  and 
indicate  the  worth  of  the  largest  offerings. 
Your  heart  is  to  be  of  tender  and  strong  feel- 
ing. Guided  by  the  wisdom  of  your  intel- 
lect, your  conscience  is  to  have  the  keenest, 
swiftest  moral  intuitions.  Your  will  is  to  have 
persistence.  It  is  to  hold  on,  to  hold  up,  to 
hold  back,  to  hold  out,  and  to  hold  down.  A 


36         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

woman  who  is  thus  endowed  will  be  ready  for 
life's  crises. 

David  took  his  sling:  tool  simple,  tool 
which  he  knew  how  to  use.  The  helmet  of 
brass,  the  coat  of  mail  which  Saul  tried  to 
put  on  him  were  impediments:  heavy,  for- 
eign; he  thrust  them  off.  Your  lives  are 
flung  into  an  age  of  elaborate  living:  elabor- 
ateness has  its  worth,  but  remember  that  sim- 
plicity has  larger  worth  and  larger  relations. 
It  is  more  akin  to  the  character  of  the  laws 
of  nature.  Your  lives  are  flung  into  an  arti- 
ficial age:  cultivate  sincerity.  Insincerity  will 
harm  others  somewhat;  it  will  harm  yourself 
more.  Your  lives  are  flung  into  an  age  of 
self-seeking:  maintain  a  delicate  sense  of 
honor.  In  an  age  of  materialism,  cultivate 
the  imagination:  be  idealists  in  ethics  and 
practice.  Purity,  gentleness,  graciousness, 
love,  faith — these  are  the  simple  tools  which 
you  are  to  know.  Neither  good  manners  nor 
good  ethics  patents  its  rights.  The  sling  is 
the  child's  plaything  or  instrument:  keep 
yourself  in  directness,  not  adroitness;  frank- 
ness, not  concealment;  enthusiasm,  not  indif- 
ference— these  are  the  simple  things  which  are 
also  best. 

But  I  do  not  forget  that  our  forth-going 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         37 

hero  took  not  only  his  sling  and  his  stones, 
but  also  his  staff.  The  staff  may  have  been 
for  either  offense  or  defense,  but  it  was 
for  help  in  his  going  forth.  One  cannot 
fail  to  recall  that  in  the  Twenty-third  Psalm, 
more  closely  associated  with  the  crises  of  life 
than  any  other  poem,  D'avid  himself  says, 
"  Thy  rod  and  thy  staff  they  comfort  me." 
It  is  no  undue  interpretation,  if  I  say  the  staff 
stands  for  the  help  of  God  given  to  you.  For 
my  present  purpose,  I  care  not  whether  it 
seems  to  you  that  God  governs  the  world  by 
general  laws,  or  whether  it  seems  to  you  that 
he  governs  the  world  by  his  personal  pres- 
ence; but  I  do  care  and  I  care  much  whether 
you  believe  that  God  is  your  friend  and  your 
helper.  I  am  confident  that  this  is  in  fact  your 
belief.  Therefore,  you  are  to  think  of  Him, — 
your  God,  as  your  radiant  Sun,  enlightening 
the  mind;  as  your  protecting  Shield,  guarding 
you;  as  your  Refuge  in  the  storm;  as  one 
whose  everlasting  arms  are  beneath  you; 
whose  love  is  your  fortress  for  defense  and 
whose  commendation  is  your  motive.  Let 
His  truth  be  your  study,  his  power  your  trust, 
his  love  your  everlasting  heritage.  With  him 
as  your  helper  you  can  run  and  not  be  weary, 
you  can  walk  and  not  faint.  With  faith  in 


38         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

him,  you  are  to  face  perils.  With  him  you 
are  to  go  into  and  come  forth  from  flaming 
furnaces  without  the  smell  of  fire  on  your 
garments.  Without  him  Heaven  would  not 
be,  and  with  him,  Hell  could  not  be.  What- 
ever weapons  you  may  carry  for  overcoming 
the  giants  of  life,  you  are  ever  to  take  the  staff 
of  God's  personal  help. 

I  see  the  fair  face  of  David  again,  standing 
to-night  in  many  a  college  church,  preparing 
to  meet  the  hard-faced  Goliath  of  life.  I 
know  that  you,  young  women,  members  of 
this  graduating  class,  appreciate  at  this  mo- 
ment in  the  beginning  of  this  Commencement 
time,  at  once  how  little  and  how  much  this 
College  has  been  to  you  in  fitting  you  to  con- 
quer the  opposing  giants  of  the  world.  You 
now  know,  as  not  before,  how  great  the 
change  is  that  is  coming  to  you.  You  would 
longer  linger  to  secure  equipment  more 
thorough,  yet,  you  would  go  forth  into  the 
inviting  and  larger  unknown.  With  reluctant 
feet,  yet  eager,  you  stand  where  the  brook  of 
the  college  and  the  river  of  life  meet.  Yet, 
this  college,  as  you  thus  stand,  sends  you 
forth,  its  second  class.  It  sends  you  forth 
assured  that  you  are  strong  in  yourselves,  with 
a  force  which  is  at  once  beauty  and  strength 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         39 

sufficient  for  the  storm  and  the  stress,  and 
fitted  for  the  sunshine  and  the  calm.  The 
college  is  confident  that  the  God  of  David  is 
your  God.  Let  the  sling  and  the  stone  of 
your  own  power  ever  conquer  for  the  right 
and  truth.  Let  the  staff  of  the  divine  bless- 
ing be  your  help  all  the  way  of  your  pilgrim- 
age. And  when  you  approach  the  end,  may 
your  voice  be  heard  singing,  "  Yea,  though  I 
walk  through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of 
death,  I  will  fear  no  evil:  for  thou  art  with  me; 
thy  rod  and  thy  staff  they  comfort  me/' 


40         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 


IV 
LOVE:  CHRIST  AND  HUMANITY 

"  A  new  commandment  I  give  unto  you,  that  ye 
love  one  another." — John  xiii.  34. 

"  Love  is  the  fulfilling  of  the  law. — Romans  xiii. 
10." 

THE  moral  and  religious  wealth  of  the 
world  when  Christ  came  into  it  was 
not  small.  It  was  indeed  a  very  re- 
ligious world.  Its  gods  were  in  multitude 
as  the  stars  and  in  character  as  diverse  as  the 
forms  of  the  clouds.  It  was  a  rich  world  too 
in  systems  of  ethics.  Confucius  had  told  his 
dream.  Plato,  Aristotle,  Cicero,  had  each 
formed  his  theories  of  righteousness.  Moral 
precepts  beginning  with  the  golden  rule  of 
the  Chinese  sage  were  many,  wholesome,  in- 
spiring. It  was  a  world,  further,  not  without 
noblest  examples  of  righteous  living.  If  one 
turn  to  the  drama  as  embodying  the  ideals  of 
humanity,  one  finds  Antigone;  if  one  turn  to 
historical  annals,  the  names  of  a  dozen  heroes 
spring  to  the  lip.  It  was  a  world  in  which  the 
family  as  the  source  and  rule  of  social  order 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         41 

had  obtained  a  secure  place.  But  it  was,  after 
all,  a  world  of  poverty  in  that  treasure  which 
is  richest  and  supreme.  It  was  a  world  without 
love.  Its  life  was  a  loveless  life.  Its  self-love 
was  selfishness.  Its  springs  of  action  were 
intellectual,  not  of  the  affections.  Its  works 
were  splendid  but  frigid.  Its  heart  was  iron. 
Its  hand  was  gloved  in  works  of  charity  as 
cold  as  ice  and  as  hard  as  steel. 

The  Christ  who  came,  came  as  love.  He 
spoke  no  eulogies  so  eloquent  as  Paul.  Such 
eulogy  was  needless;  he  was  love.  Love  was 
the  spring  of  his  coming;  love  the  parable  of 
his  wisdom ;  love  the  miracle  of  his  work ;  love 
the  life  he  lived;  love  the  death  he  died.  He 
was  both  the  message  and  the  messenger  of 
love.  It  has  indeed  often  been  asked  what 
contribution  Christ  gave  to  the  world,  what 
new  force  added,  what  new  motive  applied, 
what  new  truths  discovered.  The  force  he  con- 
tributed, the  motive  applied,  the  truth  he  dis- 
covered was  love.  Love  he  ^ave  to  the  world 
as  the  essence  of  the  divine  nature,  the  prin- 
ciple of  love  as  the  principle  of  divine  conduct, 
the  principle  of  love  as  the  principle  of  hu- 
man righteousness.  Love  was  the  com- 
prehensive contribution  which  the  Christ  of 
Christianity  has  made  the  world. 


42         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

This  love  was  not  simply  an  emotion.  It 
was  not  a  transient  fancy.  It  had  in  it  noth- 
ing of  animal  passion.  It  was  a  principle. 
It  embodied  conduct.  It  stood  for  the  great 
permanent  choice  of  the  individual  and  of 
humanity.  It  did  indeed  have  an  intellectual 
part,  but  it  was  more  than  intellectual.  It  did 
indeed  have  an  emotional  part,  but  it  was 
more  than  emotional.  It  did  indeed  have  a 
power  of  the  will,  but  it  was  more  than  voli- 
tion. It  was  sympathy,  it  was  self-sacrifice. 
It  had  in  itself  all  that  was  noblest  and  largest 
and  best  of  humanty  and  of  divinity.  It  was 
LOVE. 

This  principle  of  love  coming  into  relation- 
ship with  human  life  worked  very  important 
results.  To  these  results  I  ask  your  thought. 

The  love  which  Christ  brought,  gave  a 
sense  of  humanity.  Before  Christ  came  there 
was  no  adequate  sense  of  humanity.  There 
was,  indeed,  a  sense  of  national  life.  This  the 
Greek  had;  above  all,  the  Jew.  But  there  was 
no  sense  of  the  race,  the  whole  race;  there  was 
no  conception  of  the  value  of  humanity  as 
humanity.  There  was  nothing  of  what  we 
now  call  enthusiasm  for  humanity.  It  is  true 
we  find  occasional  instances  of  the  concep- 
tion of  human  brotherhood.  "The  whole 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         43 

world,"  says  Cicero  in  the  Laws,  "  is  to  be  re- 
garded as  the  common  city  of  gods  and 
men."  Neither  do  we  forget  the  familiar 
lines  of  Terence,  borrowed  from  Menander, 
that  nothing  human  is  foreign.  But  the  usual 
conception,  both  among  the  Greek  and  the 
Roman,  was  the  Jewish.  The  idea  of  the  com- 
munity of  nations  was  remote  and  vague. 
The  idea  of  the  family  was  indeed  fixed,  but 
between  the  idea  of  the  family  and  the  idea  of 
the  state  was  no  middle  ground,  no  connect- 
ing link.  The  temples,  even  the  Jewish,  were 
not  for  the  people;  they  were  for  the  priests. 
The  old  world  had  no  worthy  place  for  that 
worthy  bit  of  humanity,  the  child.  The  old 
world  had  no  worthy  place  for  woman.  The 
old  world  had  no  place  for  the  poor,  the 
weak,  the  weary.  The  conception  of  the  na- 
tion was  one  people,  one  in  origin  and  destiny ; 
the  conception  of  the  state  was  one  people 
under  one  controlling  force ;  the  conception  of 
the  commonwealth  was  one  people  in  condition 
and  interest, — each  conception  was  strong.  But 
to  the  idea  of  all  nations  composing  one  sim- 
ple humanity  the  world  had  not  come.  This 
idea  entered  the  world  with  Christ.  His  na- 
ture and  condition  fitted  him  to  originate  such 
an  idea.  He  was  a  Jew,  yet  he  had  a  strain 


44         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

of  Gentile  blood.  Wise  men  from  the  East 
and  shepherds  from  the  field  were  worshipers 
at  his  altar-cradle.  Though  born  in  Palestine 
in  the  country  of  his  great  ancestor,  he  spent  a 
part  of  his  babyhood  in  a  land  where  his  fa- 
thers had  served  as  slaves.  He  was  brought 
up  in  an  inland  town,  yet  one  which  was  a 
metropolis.  His  message  was  spoken  to  the 
lost  sheep  of  the  house  of  Israel,  but  he  also 
said  "  other  sheep  I  have  which  are  not  of  this 
fold;  them  also  I  must  bring."  In  the  last 
week  of  his  life  Greeks  sought  wisdom  from 
his  lips.  His  invitations  were  as  broad  as 
"  whosoever  will."  The  symbols  which  he 
used  to  type  his  universal  relationships  were 
bread  and  water.  The  declaration  inscribed 
over  his  cross  was  written  in  Latin — the  lan- 
guage of  universal  empire,  in  Greek — the 
language  of  universal  culture,  in  Hebrew — 
the  language  of  universal  holiness.  The  chief 
wonder  following  his  death  was  the  wonder  of 
the  gift  of  tongues — a  Babel  which  was  not  a 
Babel,  for  each  speaking  understood  the  other. 
Those  on  whom  his  power  rested  were  out  of 
every  kindred  and  tongue  and  nation.  The 
visions  of  the  Apocalypse  indicate  not  only 
the  happiness  of  his  subjects,  but  the  inclusive- 
ness  of  his  realm.  The  Apostle  indicates  that 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         45 

Jesus  Christ  is  the  chief  corner-stone,  and  that 
on  this  foundation  rests  the  household  of  God 
in  which  strangers  and  foreigners  become  citi- 
zens and  sons.  To  us,  in  this  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, in  this  democratic  nation,  all  this  seems 
commonplace.  For  to-day  we  have  a  sense 
of  humanity  universal  in  its  comprehensive- 
ness, compact  in  its  individualism,  intense  in 
its  affection.  Combination,  co-operation,  con- 
solidation, union  are  the  rallying  cries  of 
society,  of  commerce,  of  government.  We  to- 
day write  not  men,  but  man,  on  our  wide- 
spreading  banners.  The  idea  that  has  thus 
come  to  the  world  entered  the  world 
with  him,  who  called  himself  the  son  of  man, 
and  who  was  Love. 

This  principle  of  love  gave  not  only  a  sense 
of  humanity,  it  also  gave  a  sense  of  the  worth 
of  the  individual.  The  heathen  world  had 
wisdom.  The  heathen  world  had  also  will. 
But  the  heathen  world  had  no  worthy  affec- 
tions. The  old  world  had  a  brain,  it  lacked  a 
heart.  It  had  a  place  for  the  hero,  it  had  no 
niche  for  him  who  was  not  heroic.  Most  peo- 
ple in  ordinary  relations  are  not  heroic.  The 
love  of  the  Christ  was,  however,  a  love  for  the 
individual  of  whatever  sort.  For  Christ  came 
seeking  the  lost,  saving  that  which  might  not 


46         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

seem  worthy  of  saving.  He  came  to  rest  the 
weary,  to  lift  the  heavy  laden,  to  give  an  easy 
yoke  for  yoke  bearers.  He  declared  that  one 
doing  his  will  became  to  him  as  a  mother.  He 
spoke  assurances  which  we  call  beatitudes, 
blessings  promised  for  moral  qualities,  quali- 
ties which  may  belong  to  each,  and  not  bless- 
ings for  intellectual  qualities  which  may  be 
denied  to  many.  The  pearl  of  all  the  necklace 
of  his  parables  is  the  one  in  which  one  hero 
stands  for  love,  for  love  given,  and  in  which 
one  hero  stands  also  for  love,  love  accepted. 
The  parable  which  is  a  vision  of  the  last  day 
suggests  that  in  the  unlikely  and  the  unlovely 
may  be  seen  himself.  He  calls  himself  the 
way,  but  it  is  a  way  in  which  the  wayfaring 
man  may  walk.  He  calls  himself  the  truth, 
but  it  is  the  truth  which  each  man  may  know. 
He  calls  himself  the  life,  but  it  is  the  life 
which  each  man  may  share. 

In  the  love  which  he  offered,  the  Christ,  fur- 
ther, gave  to  men  an  adequate  conception  of 
God  as  love.  The  old  world  did  not  lack  gods. 
Paganism  was  and  is  polytheistic.  One  of  the 
first  charges  which  the  early  Christians  had  to 
repel  was  the  charge  of  being  atheists.  The 
finest  embodiment  of  the  gods  of  the  finest 
paganism  was  Athena.  Athena  to  the  Athen- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         47 

ian  was  supreme  wisdom.  She  was  also  pur- 
ity. Her  beauty  was  severe  and  strong.  She 
was  the  presiding  spirit  of  the  noblest  city  of 
the  noblest  nation  in  its  noblest  age.  The 
finest  thought  which  the  most  discriminating 
mind  of  antiquity  could  realize  as  to  the  ob- 
ject of  its  supreme  worship  was  wisdom, 
beauty,  purity— qualities  indeed  magnificent 
and  entrancing.  But  the  Christ  came  to  show 
that  in  the  God  were  not  only  wisdom,  purity, 
and  beauty,  but  also  was  love.  "  God  is  love," 
says  the  inspired  writer;  love  is  God,  we  in- 
terpret his  meaning.  The  Oriental  brought 
his  gods  to  the  level  and  condition  of  nature; 
his  was,  indeed,  an  attempt  to  realize  the  im- 
manence of  the  divinity,  and  his  gods  were 
fierce  and  terrible  or  calm  and  tender,  as  are 
the  moods  of  nature  herself.  The  Roman  at 
first  materialized  his  god  into  the  chief  of  the 
state.  Later  he  deified  the  emperor.  But  the 
Christ  himself  preached  that  love  was  God. 
Let  me  now  say  that  we  need  to  return  to  the 
early  conception.  Can  anyone  think  to-day, 
as  men  once  have  thought,  that  God  created 
men  to  damn  them?  No  wonder  when  the 
assurance  prevailed  that  the  heart  of  the  eter- 
nal is  not  gall,  nor  the  heart  of  the  universe 
poison,,  the  morning  stars  sang  together,  or 


48         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

the  evening  stars  shouted  for  joy.  No  won- 
der the  early  Christians  called  their  sacrament 
of  worship,  to  a  God  of  love,  a  love  feast  and 
made  a  kiss  their  salutation.  No  wonder  the 
universe  ceased  to  the  early  Christians  to  be  a 
prison-house  and  became  a  father's  house,  that 
it  ceased  to  be  a  machine  shop  of  impersonal 
forces  and  became  a  flower  garden,  a  land  of 
Beulah.  No  wonder  the  avenging  furies 
ceased  to  torment  men's  fancy  and  men  came 
to  believe  in  the  ministry  of  angels.  No  won- 
der the  world  ceased  to  be  inhabited  by  fiends 
and  became  suggestive  of  loving  providences 
and  symbolic  of  the  divine  beneficence  and 
love.  No  wonder  the  world  rejoiced  when  it 
was  told  by  the  Apostle  of  love  that  God  so 
loved  the  world  that  he  gave  his  only  son  unto 
it. 

'Let  me  also  say  that  to-day  this  principle  of 
love  is  the  fundamental  truth  in  every  doctrine 
of  Christian  theology.  Love  is  the  truth  of 
the  Godhead :  God  is  love.  Love  is  the  truth 
of  Christ.  Love  is  the  great  cardinal  fact  on 
which  swings  wide  and  high  the  door  of  the 
Atonement.  Love  is  the  atmosphere,  warm 
and  clear,  in  which  the  Holy  Spirit  labors  to 
make  men  better.  Man's  capacity  to  receive 
and  to  give  forth  love  is  the  chief  truth  re- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          49 

specting  the  human  element  of  salvation. 
Love  is  the  corner-stone  of  the  church.  The 
doctrine  of  love  gives  authority  to  the  Scrip- 
tures ;  without  this  fact  it  would  be  difficult  to 
prove  inspiration.  Love  is  the  truth  on  which 
all  theories  of  future  rewards  proceed.  It  is 
the  truth  on  which  all  theories  of  future  pun- 
ishment proceed.  If  the  God  who  condemns 
failed  to  love  those  whom  he  condemns,  he 
would  be,  not  a  God,  but  the  Devil.  Wrong  in 
logic,  false  in  idea,  is  that  man — if  he  live — 
who  thinks  of  God  as  other  than  a  God  of 
love:  he  is  a  heathen.  Wrong  in  logic,  false 
in  idea,  is  the  church — if  it  be — which  thinks 
of  God  as  other  than  a  God  of  love:  it  is 
heathendom.  Right  and  true  and  sound  are 
the  man  and  the  church  who  test  all  doctrines 
by  the  doctrine  of  love:  the  love  of  God  for 
man,  the  love  of  man  for  God,  the  love  of  man 
for  man. 

The  love  which  the  Christ  bore  provided  a 
new  motive  for  all  life.  It  added  power  to  life; 
it  gave  to  life  a  buoyancy,  a  spring,  a  move- 
ment. It  is  difficult  to  discriminate  how  love 
did  this.  Love  gave  a  new  life.  Love  gave  a 
divine  life.  Love  gave  a  new  light.  The 
heart  clarified  the  intellect.  Love  preached 
a  gospel  of  universal  brotherhood  without 


50         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

preaching  communism.  Love  preached  a 
gospel  of  self-sacrifice  without  preaching  an- 
nihilation. Love  preached  optimism,  the  gos- 
pel of  hope.  Love  never  whispered  a  syllable 
of  pessimism,  the  gospel  of  despair.  Love  as- 
sured men  that  God  dwells  in  them,  about 
them;  love  convinced  them  that  this  world  is 
God's,  not  the  devil's  world;  love  whispered 
that  the  eternal  spirit  is  working  in  and  for 
man,  that  humanity  represents  the  constant 
striving  of  God  toward  the  reincarnation;  love 
proved  that  conscience  and  reason  in  each 
man  are  to  be  united,  and  that  the  revelations 
of  conscience  and  reason  in  man  are  the 
revelations  of  God's  truth;  love  declared  that 
the  human  need  of  forgiveness  is  filled  by  the 
divine  pardon,  that  all  worthy  sacrifice  con- 
sists in  the  yielding  of  the  human  will  to  the 
divine,  and  that  perfect  freedom  is  perfect 
obedience  to  perfect  law.  It  was  thus  that  a 
new  motive  came  to  humanity  through  the 
new  love.  I  read  Epictetus — noblest  flower 
of  pagan  plant — self-understanding  how  pro- 
found, humility  how  Christian,  counsel  how 
sage,  wisdom  how  precise,  ideals  how  exalted, 
self-reliance  how  strong,  self-restraint  how 
calm — a  Socrates  without  pettiness,  a  Plato 
without  remoteness  from  life.  But  how  cold 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         51 

he  is!  As  I  read  these  noble  paragraphs  I 
feel  myself  walking  through  halls  of  marble, 
ornate,  splendid,  but  frigid,  whose  atmosphere 
is  of  the  tomb.  As  I  read  the  gospel  of  St. 
John  I  find,  indeed,  less  of  the  ornate,  less  of 
the  splendid,  but  I  find  life.  I  read  the  medi- 
tations of  Marcus  Aurelius — how  simple  yet 
how  profound,  how  broad  yet  how  deep,  how 
learned  yet  how  wise,  how  exalted  yet  how 
humble,  how  wide  in  knowledge  yet  how  full 
of  self-understanding — as  I  read  these  medita- 
tions of  that  noble  man,  who  was  by  destiny  a 
philosopher,  by  chance  an  emperor,  I  am  re- 
minded of  the  story  of  a  king,  the  king  who 
gave  audience  to  his  court.  The  king  re- 
clines in  his  kingly  chair,  on  his  brow  rests  the 
crown,  his  lily  fingers  grasp  the  scepter,  over 
his  heart  flash  insignia.  The  marble  halls 
sing  in  entrancing  music,  the  polished  floors 
are  happy  in  the  tread  of  dancing  feet,  lords 
and  ladies  approach  and  pay  obeisance.  The 
courtiers  with  one  voice  exclaim,  "  Long  live 
the  king,  long  live  the  king."  The  king  has 
all,  all  but  life.  I  read  the  meditations  of  this 
great  man,  Marcus  Aurelius;  he  has  all  but 
life.  I  read  the  gospels  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ  and  he  has  life.  His  life  is  love. 
That  love  is  God  and  that  God  is  love  we 


52         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

are  coming  the  better  to  understand.  Phi- 
losophy has  for  more  than  two  thousand  years 
been  searching  for  its  god.  Plato  found  it  in 
his  supreme  ideal.  This  century  has  been 
searching  for  it  as  never  before  has  any  age 
searched  for  a  god.  Fichte  found  his  god  in 
the  "  ego."  Schelling  found  his  god  in  his 
system  of  correspondence.  Hegel  found  his 
god  in  pure  being.  Schopenhauer  found  his 
god  in  the  absolute  will.  Von  Hartmann 
found  his  god  in  the  unconscious.  And 
each  of  these  found,  indeed,  one  side  of  God. 
God  is  the  ideal,  the  perfect.  God  is  the  uni- 
versal "  ego."  God  does  make  himself  known 
in  the  orders  and  gradations  of  existence. 
God  is  indeed  a  pure  being.  God  is  indeed  a 
force,  a  will.  God  we  may  consider  the  un- 
conscious in  certain  relations.  But  this  God 
who  is  all  these  is  also  and  more  the  God  of 
love.  Love  is  the  supreme  ideal,  love  is  per- 
sonal, love  is  comprehensive,  love  is  force,  love 
is  energy,  ever  so  going  out  into  other  lives 
that  it  may  be  said  to  be  forgetful  of  itself. 
Love  is  the  absolute.  Love  is  the  God. 

These  are  truths  which  college  men  need  to 
learn.  The  trained  intellect  is  a  tremendous 
power.  Intellectual  culture  is  a  very  precious 
thing  to  have  or  to  bestow.  A  character  disci- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         53 

plined,  equipped,  enriched  is  a  possession 
worthy  of  consuming  struggle.  When  God 
wants  a  great  work  done  he  calls  a  well-trained 
mind  as  St.  Paul.  But  a  well-trained  mind 
without  love  is  a  Frankenstein.  Intellectual 
culture  without  love  is  moral  suicide.  God 
summons  every  man  to  know  with  the  reason, 
but  he  also  summons  every  man  to  love.  If 
college  train  the  intellect,  as  it  does,  let  col- 
lege not  dry  up  the  fountains  of  the  heart.  If 
college  teach  one  to  think,  as  it  does,  let  it 
not  dwarf  the  affections.  Let  love  and 
thought  be  the  twin  stars  in  the  one  constella- 
tion of  perfected  character. 

This  world  of  which  we  are  a  part  and  into 
which  we  go  is  not  a  world  of  love.  Love  has 
not  yet  fully  possessed  this  world.  But  you 
are  ordained  to  make  this  world  a  world  of 
love.  Therefore  you  are  to  love  it.  If  the 
world  admire  or  honor  you,  love  it.  If  the 
world  be  indifferent  to  you,  love  it.  If  the 
world  hate  you,  love  it.  If  the  world 
despise  and  spurn  you,  still  love  the 
world.  Give  yourself  or  your  treasure  or 
withhold  yourself  or  your  treasure,  but  love 
the  world.  Pray  or  labor  for  the  world 
or  do  not  pray  or  labor,  but  love  the 
world.  Love  the  world  as  God  loves  it,  who 


64         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

gave  his  son  for  it.  Love  the  world  as  Christ 
loves  it,  who  died  for  it.  Love  the  world  as 
the  Holy  Ghost  loves  it,  who  lives  in  it  and  for 
it.  May  it  truly  be  said  of  you  that 

"  Love  took  up  the  harp  of  life  and  smote  on  all  the 

chords  with  might; 

Smote  the  chord  of  Self,  that  trembling,  passed  in 
music  out  of  sight." 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         65 


V 

THE  YOUTH'S  DREAM  OF  LIFE 
"And  he  dreamed. "—Gen.  xxviii.  12. 

JACOB  has  left  his  boyhood's  home.  He 
is  starting  out  in  his  life's  work.  The 
first  night  after  his  departure  he  dreams 
a  dream  which  the  words  that  have  been  read 
describe.  The  week,  of  which  this  is  the  first 
service,  is  called  Commencement  Week.  It 
is  not,  according  to  an  early  use  of  the  term, 
the  beginning  of  the  college  year.  It  is  rather 
the  beginning,  the  commencement  of  life.  I 
may  therefore  for  us  interpret  Jacob's  dream 
as  the  Youth's  Dream  of  Life. 

For  to  every  youth,  as  to  Jacob,  the  first 
approach  to  life  is  through  dream-land.  In 
every  youth  imagination  is  stronger  than  will. 
As  he  faces  this  very  vague  but  very  real  con- 
dition which  we  call  life,  each  young  man  or 
woman  is  filled  with  a  sense  of  wonder, 
strangeness,  and  inquiry.  What  life  is  to  be 
he  knows  not.  Even  what  he  wants  life  to  be 
he  is  not  quite  sure.  He  is  in  the  mood  of 


66         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

reverie,  not  of  work;  of  interrogation,  not  of 
assertion.  He  sees  visions.  He  hears  many 
voices  and  mingled  calling  to  him  out  of  the 
future.  He  is  dreaming  the  dream  of  the  life 
that  is  to  be.  Therefore,  the  youth's  dream 
of  life,  or,  more  definitely,  what  are  the  char- 
acteristics of  this  dream  as  it  is  represented  in 
Jacob's  dream  at  Bethel,  is  my  theme. 

Jacob's  dream  was  optimistic.  Ministering 
angels  were  its  characters.  'Its  environment 
was  as  the  house  of  God  and  the  gate  of 
Heaven.  The  youth's  dream  of  life  is  optimis- 
tic. Its  rainbow  of  promise  is  braided  of 
skyey  hopes  and  splendid  ideals.  The  youth 
is  a  youth  so  long  as  he  is  an  optimist.  Op- 
timism is  the  fabled  elixir.  For  we  are  to  re- 
member that  optimism  is  not  only  an  idea,  but 
also  is  good  feeling;  not  good  feeling  only,  it 
is  also  happy  choice.  Not  only  is  it  these 
states  of  mind,  but  it  is  also  a  sound  constitu- 
tion, and  joyous  conditions,  and  worthiest 
aims.  Optimism,  let  us  not  forget,  is  at  once 
a  belief  and  an  atmosphere. 

It  is  well  that  the  youth's  dream  of  life  is 
optimistic.  Life  has  in  itself  much  that  is  not 
best  or  good.  No  one  can  look  out  from  some 
great  observatory  on  human  life  without  feel- 
ing himself  pierced  by  its  agonies  and  shames, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         67 

sympathizing  with  its  sorrows,  and  moved  by 
its  woes.  The  pessimist  is  not  without  argu- 
ment from  observation  and  experience.  But 
pessimism  arises  from  seeing  a  part  and  not 
the  whole.  For  optimism  is  the  lasting  key- 
note to  which  all  the  variations  of  life's  music 
are  constantly  attuned,  from  which  they  take 
their  departure,  and  to  which  they  return.  The 
optimism  of  the  age  of  ten  is  not  the  optimism 
of  the  age  of  twenty,  nor  the  optimism  of 
twenty  that  of  sixty.  The  optimism  of  mere 
pleasure  gives  way  to  the  optimism  of  a  high 
purpose,  of  work  nobly  planned  and  nobly 
wrought,  and  the  optimism  of  work  itself 
makes  way  to  the  optimism  of  triumphs 
achieved,  and  the  optimism  of  triumphs 
achieved  in  turn  makes  room  for  the  optimism 
of  a  blessed  memory  and  of  hopes  which  await 
a  fulfillment  beyond  the  clouds.  For  we  are 
ever  to  believe  that  the  world  at  its  center  is 
good,  and  at  its  circumference  far  from  being 
bad.  We  are  to  believe  that  evil  is  an  inci- 
dental and  not  an  essential  part  of  the  present 
moral  system.  We  are  to  believe  that  this 
world  is  the  best  of  all  possible  worlds,  for  its 
conditions.  Every  Christian  is  an  optimist, 
and  every  optimist  cannot  well  avoid  being  a 
Christian.  The  first  article  of  the  universal 


58         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

creed :  "  I  believe  in  God  the  Father  Al- 
mighty/' is  also  the  first  article  in  the  creed  of 
the  optimist.  Optimism  is  not  born  of  blind- 
ness to  evil  conditions.  It  knows  that  there 
are  waves  of  pain,  and  suffering  and  agony, 
tossing  on  and  tearing  up  the  shore  of  this 
great  human  ocean.  But  it  also  knows  that 
the  great  undertow  and  the  gulf  streams  are 
of  beneficence  and  peace. 

The  one  thing  to  be  said  to  the  young  soul 
in  its  dreams  is  this :  optimism  is  strength.  To 
believe  that  things  are  for  the  best  helps  to 
make  things  best.  Great  men  are  always  op- 
timists. They  are  not  optimists  so  much  be- 
cause they  are  great,  as  they  are  great  because 
they  are  optimists.  The  world's  great  books 
are  optimistic.  The  close  of  the  Odyssey 
brings  to  a  close  the  hero's  wanderings.  The 
Paradiso  of  the  Italian  poet  follows  the  In- 
ferno and  the  Purgatorio,  as  the  Paradise  Re- 
gained of  the  English  singer  follows  Paradise 
Lost.  Goethe's  final  word  in  his  masterpiece 
is  "upward  and  on."  One  of  the  great  mes- 
sages which  the  robust  Browning  gives  to  the 
world  is : 

"All  service  ranks  the  same  with  God — 
With  God,  whose  puppets,  best  and  worst, 
Are  we;  there  is  no  last  nor  first." 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         59 

The  best  interpreter  of  our  times  closes  his 
great  poem  singing: 

"  For  all  we  thought,  and  loved,  and  did, 
And  hoped,  and  suffered,  is  but  seed 
Of  what  in  them  is  flower  and  fruit." 

Even  on  the  reasoning  of  Schopenhauer,  it 
seems  to  me,  pessimism  contains  the  seed  of 
optimism.  For  if  the  will  is  never  satisfied, 
and  if  man  therefore  is  always  to  be  unhappy, 
it  is  still  true  that  the  lack  of  satisfaction 
prompts  to  struggle,  and  struggle  is  the  pre- 
requisite of  strength. 

"  'Tis  not  the  grapes  of  Canaan  that  repay, 
But  the  high  faith  that  failed  not  by  the  way." 

Optimism  is  strength.  One  can  hardly 
forbear  thinking  of  a  worthy  representative 
of  our  time,  whose  inner  life  has  lately 
been  unfolded  through  his  own  letters, 
as  an  optimist.  As  the  years  increased,  in- 
creased his  assurance  of  the  goodness  of  man. 
It  was  in  early  life  that  he  put  a  revolver  to  his 
head.  It  was  in  mature  life  he  wrote :  "  I  take 
great  comfort  in  God.  I  think  He  is  consider- 
ably amused  with  us  sometimes,  but  that  He 
likes  us,  on  the  whole,  and  would  not  let  us  get 
at  the  match-box  so  carelessly  as  He  does,  un- 
less He  knew  that  the  frame  of  His  universe 


60         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

was  fire-proof."  His  greatest  ode,  though 
sung  to  commemorate  fallen  heroes,  is  a  hymn 
of  exultation  for  the  republic.  Life  became  to 
him  a  treasure  richer,  a  privilege  greater,  an 
opportunity  the  more  magnificent  with  each 
passing  decade.  Over  the  sea  there  dwells  one, 
who,  fifty  years  ago,  flashed  on  the  world  with 
the  name  of  "  Graduate  of  Oxford."  He  had 
"  views  "  and  he  exhibited  them.  He  wrote 
with  the  brilliancy  of  De  Quincey,  with  the 
freshness  of  Scott,  with  the  force  of  Macaulay, 
with  the  correctness  of  Addison.  He  was  a 
philosopher,  a  painter,  an  historian,  a  critic,  a 
teacher.  In  each  of  these  callings  he  had  in- 
dustry and  energy.  He  made  and  unmade 
reputations.  His  judgments  reversed  the  judg- 
ments of  centuries.  He  helped  men  to  see. 
He  appealed  to  reason;  he  honored  justice, 
law,  order.  He  loved  God  and  man.  Under 
his  touch  the  stones  of  Venice  took  on  a  new 
beauty,  and  the  splendors  of  Florence  a  new 
glory.  If  with  the  ceasing  of  youth  he  ceased 
to  tell  men  of  the  glories  of  art,  he  began 
to  tell  men  of  the  glories  of  life,  of  the  duties  of 
helpfulness,  and  of  the  magnificence  of  self- 
sacrifice.  Messages  entrancing  he  gave.  To- 
day he  lives,  an  old  man,  seldom  speaking  to 
the  world.  And,  alas,  when  he  does  speak, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          61 

the  voice  is  not  that  of  an  Isaiah  prohesying 
a  nobler  time  yet  to  be,  but  the  voice  of  a  Jere- 
miah in  lamenting.  James  Russell  Lowell,  in 
the  sunset  of  his  day,  was  strong  in  himself, 
strong  through  his  influence  over  two  worlds, 
strong  in  his  virile,  robust  optimism.  John 
Ruskin,  in  the  sunset  of  his  day,  is  a  vanishing 
influence  through  his  drear  and  dread  pessi- 
mism. Carlyle,  too,  was  majestic  and  mighty  so 
long  as  he  was  an  optimist.  Carlyle  became 
weak,  trivial, — not  a  voice,  not  a  scream, — not 
a  scream,  but  echoes  of  a  scream, — as  he  be- 
came pessimistic.  Optimism  is  strength. 
Strength  is  optimism.  Which  is  cause,  which 
result,  I  need  not  now  discuss.  Each  is  cause, 
each  is  result.  Therefore  to  you  I  say,  let  your 
dream  of  life  be  optimistic.  Believe  in  yourself 
as  good.  Believe  in  your  fellows  as  better. 
Believe  in  your  God  as  best.  Accept  of  life  as 
privilege  most  precious ;  live  your  life  as  duty 
most  sacred ;  exult  in  life  as  glory  and  inspira- 
tion most  exalted. 

Jacob's  dream  has,  too,  the  element  of 
righteousness.  Chicanery  lies  in  the  past  of 
the  son  of  Rebecca.  Duplicity  is  to  mark 
parts  of  his  future.  But,  in  his  dream  and  in 
his  consequent  pledge  are  only  simplicity,  sin- 
cerity, honesty,  righteousness.  The  youth's 


62         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

dream  of  life  has  in  itself  the  comprehensive, 
vital  virtue  of  righteousness.  The  promise  of 
the  future  is  contained  in  fitting  obedience  to 
fitting  law.  Let  us  never  forget  the  omni- 
presence, the  omnipotence  of  law.  Let  us 
never  forget  that,  if  in  respect  to  the  nature  of 
His  being,  God  is  love,  that  in  respect  to  the 
relations  of  His  being,  God  is  law.  The  one 
comprehensive  law  is  righteousness,  or,  writ 
short,  is  right.  This  simple  law  man  is  simply 
to  obey.  Sin  is,  as  the  Greek  word  indicates, 
lawlessness.  Lawlessness  is  discord,  disunion, 
disintegration,  degradation,  destruction,  dam- 
nation. The  universe  is  conditioned  by  law. 
There  is  no  place  for  sin  in  a  well-ordered  uni- 
verse. There  is  no  place  for  the  sinner  in  a 
beneficent  universe.  The  sinner  is  an  outlaw. 
An  act  of  sin  introduced  into  the  human  con- 
stitution works  a  disorder  in  that  constitution 
akin  to  that  which  a  misplaced  star  would 
work  in  the  celestial  system.  Cosmos  becomes 
chaos.  Sin  obscures  the  intellectual  vision. 
Sin  depraves  the  affections.  Sin  hardens  the 
conscience.  Sin  outrages  the  will.  Sin  de- 
stroys the  poise  of  the  faculties.  Sin  does  this. 
Sin  also  causes  the  sinner  to  feel  that  he  is  an 
outlaw,  a  rebel  in  a  realm  of  righteous  order. 
Sin  is  the  mother  of  self-consciousness  and  of 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         63 

shame.  Sin  awakes  Adam  and  Eve  to  the  fact 
of  their  nakedness.  Daniel  Webster  pictures 
in  lightning  the  self-consciousness  of  the  mur- 
derer of  Captain  White.  Hawthorne  tells  of 
the  awakening  power  of  sin  in  the  illicit  loves 
of  Arthur  Dimmesdale,  and  in  the  transforma- 
tion which  comes  over  the  Fawn  through  his 
silent  and  dreadful  murder.  Lady  Macbeth, 
murdering  Duncan,  murders  sleep.  Yea,  un- 
righteousness is  a  power  which  makes  for  de- 
struction. Righteousness  is  a  power  which 
makes  for  preservation,  development,  life. 
Righteousness  is  salvation.  Idolatry,  adultery, 
murder  are  not  wrong  because  the  ten  com- 
mandments forbid  them.  The  ten  command- 
ments forbid  them  because  they  are  wrong. 
Law  is  not  arbitrary.  Law  is  in  accordance 
with  the  nature  of  things.  Law,  law,  law, 
everywhere  law.  Law  takes  on  cubical  rela- 
tions. Law  is  as  eternal  as  eternity.  Obedi- 
ence to  law  means  obedience  to  the  eternal 
and  the  infinite.  Living  in  accordance  with 
law  is  living  in  accordance  with  the  divine. 
The  man  who  is  to  keep  his  youth's  dream  is 
thus  to  live.  He  has  one  line  and  one  line 
only  to  walk.  It  is  the  straight  line,  which  is  a 
right  line.  If  the  dream  is  dreamed  in  youth's 
innocence,  the  youth  can  project  the  vision 


64         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

only  by  transmuting  youth's  innocence  into 
manhood's  purity.  If  the  dream  is  dreamed  in 
solitude,  he  can  maintain  its  power  over  him- 
self in  a  throng  by  holding  fast  and  firm  simple 
righteousness.  If  the  vision  is  dreamed  in  the 
darkness,  he  can  keep  its  individuality  of  in- 
fluence in  the  dissipation  of  the  day  only  by 
demanding  of  himself  that  he  be  inspired  by 
its  mighty  right.  If  the  blessing  of  youth's 
hope  is  to  be  transmuted  into  the  blessing  of 
manhood's  memory,  righteousness  must  be  the 
foundation  of  the  hope.  If  the  blessing  of 
work  to  be  done  is  to  be  transmuted  into  the 
blessing  of  work  done,  righteousness  must  be 
the  companion  in  the  service.  If  the  blessing 
of  youth's  exultation  is  to  be  transmuted  into 
the  blessing  of  manhood's  peace,  righteousness 
must  be  the  breastplate  of  the  chivalric  soul  in 
both  youth  and  age.  If  the  blessing  of  youth's 
dream  is  to  be  transmuted  into  the  blessing  of 
manhood's  realities,  righteousness  is  the  en- 
ergy which  works  the  blessed  transformation. 
The  skyward  aspirations  of  your  youth  are  to 
be  in  and  of  simple  righteousness. 

The  name  of  one  man  trembles  on  my  lips 
as  I  think  of  righteousness  as  an  element  in  the 
dream  of  life.  It  is  the  name  of  one  who  for 
many  years  stood  in  the  place  where  now  I 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          65 

stand  a  Baccalaureate  preacher.  It  is  the  name 
of  one  who,  for  almost  three  decades  was  a 
mighty  power  in  the  building  up  of  strong  and 
right  character  in  the  students  of  this  college. 
Carroll  Cutler  stood  for  simple,  sheer,  per- 
pendicular righteousness.  Mightier  than  any 
visible  triumphs,  more  worthy  than  happiness, 
more  satisfying  than  scholarship,  was  to  him 
righteousness.  If  I  may  slightly  change  words 
which  he  wrote  and  apply  them  in  a  way 
which  he  would  never  have  suffered  himself 
to  apply  them,  I  may  say  that  Carroll  Cutler 
made  it  his  supreme  choice  and  purpose  to 
learn  and  do  all  his  duties  towards  God  and 
men  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  What  higher 
moral  encomium  can  be  given  to  any  soul?  It 
is  this  simple  duty  of  simple  righteousness 
which  the  college  has  tried  to  teach  to  you, 
and  it  is  this  same  duty  which  I,  among  these 
last  words,  would  endeavor  to  impress  upon 
you.  Be  or  be  not  severe,  but  be  square.  Be 
or  be  not  gracious,  but  be  straight.  Be  or  be 
not  pleasing  in  manner,  but  be  always  right. 

Jacob's  dream  was  a  dream  of  faith.  It 
indicated  faith  in  God.  It  also  indicated  that 
the  dreamer  had  faith  in  himself.  I  may  also 
add  that  it  indicated  that  God  had  faith  in  the 
dreamer.  The  youth's  dream  of  life  is  to  be  a 


66         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

dream  of  faith.     It  is  to  be  a  dream  of  faith  in 
one's  self.     In  neither  arrogance  nor  humilia- 
tion, in  neither  self-conceit  nor  self-distrust, but 
in  a  clear  knowledge  of  one's  self,  with  a  con- 
sciousness of  unselfishness  of  motive,  of  a  purity 
of  heart,  of  height  of  aim,  one  is  to  have  faith 
in  one's  self.  College  life  develops  this  worthy 
faith.     If  college  life  pulls  certain  bright  feath- 
ers out  of  juvenile  pinions,  it  yet  gives  strength 
to  the  hidden  muscle  which  lifts  and  bears. 
The  competitions  of  college  life  should  give 
you  confidence  in  yourself  as  you  enter  upon 
the  competitions  of  active  life.     Your  associa- 
tions with  scholars  and  thinkers  should  give 
you  confidence  in  yourself  as  you  enter  into 
associations  with  other  scholars  and  thinkers, 
or  with  men  of  all  sorts  and  conditions.     Have 
faith  also  in  humanity,  in  humanity's  goodness 
and  in  the  splendid  goal  of  perfection  which 
humanity  will  at  last  reach.     Believe  that  hu- 
manity cannot,  will  not,  shall  not  fail.    Its  prog- 
ress seems  often  to  be  only  circular.     It  goes 
in  one  ceaseless  round.     But  the  circle  is  in  a 
spiral,  and  ever  as  the  circle  goes  round  it  goes 
up.     Higher  attainment  springs  from  present 
attainment.     Let  us  never  forget  that  youth  is 
humanity's  fin'al  hope.    The  candle  of  human 
expectation  is  lighted  at  the  altar  of  youth. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          67 

The  Western  sky  of  humanity  may  never  be  so 
black  but  that  the  morning  star  is  burning  a 
promise  over  the  flushing  Eastern  hills. 
Humanity  may  crucify,  but  have  faith  in  it;  it 
shall  yet  bless.  Humanity  may  prefer  error, 
but  have  faith  in  it;  it  shall  yet  know  and  love 
truth.  Humanity  may  turn  its  traitors  into 
heroes  and  its  heroes  into  martyrs,  but  have 
faith  in  it;  it  shall  yet  crown  the  kingly  king. 
Humanity  may  be  brutal  and  cowardly,  in 
ways,  satanic,  but  have  faith  in  it : 

"  For  Humanity  sweeps  onward;  where  to-day  the 

martyr  stands, 
On  the  morrow  crouches  Judas  with  the  silver  in  his 

hands ; 
Far  in  front  the  cross  stands  ready  and  the  crackling 

fagots  burn, 
While  the  hooting  mob  of  yesterday  in  silent  awe 

return 
To  glean  up  the    scattered    ashes   into    History's 

golden  urn." 

Have  faith  also  in  God.  Have  faith  in  a  power 
which  makes  for  righteousness;  that  is  much. 
Have  faith  also  in  a  person  who  is  righteous ; 
that  is  more.  Have  faith  in  a  power  which 
makes  for  omnipotence;  that  is  much.  Have 
faith  also  in  a  person  who  is  omnipotent;  that 
is  more.  Have  faith  in  a  power  that  makes  for 


68         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

beneficence;  that  is  much.  Have  faith  also  in 
a  person  who  is  love;  that  is  most.  Such  a 
faith  does  not  promote  length  of  creeds,  but 
such  a  faith  is  the  essence  of  every  creed. 
Such  a  faith  is  an  anchor  to  the  soul,  in  its 
storm  and  stress.  Such  a  faith  is  a  bridge  to 
bear  one  across  the  hissing  streams  of  sorrow, 
disappointment,  failure.  Such  a  faith  may  be 
to  you  what  a  star  may  be  to  a  boat  crew  on  a 
wide,  wide  sea,  without  compass  or  bread.  I 
know  the  temptations  which  life  bears  of  los- 
ing faith  in  God.  I  hear  the  old  and  new  story 
which  the  book  of  Job  is  ever  telling.  I  hear 
the  blasphemy,  "  Curse  God  and  die."  But  let 
each  soul  know  that  however  hard  its  lot,  bitter 
its  condition,  sad  its  fate,  God  is  and  God 
loves.  Let  me  also  say,  do  you  be  such  a  man 
that  God  can  have  faith  in  you.  Make  your 
youth  such  that  God  can  trust  you  for  your 
early  prime.  Make  your  early  prime  such  that 
God  can  trust  you  for  your  maturity.  In  intel- 
lectual questioning,  in  the  hesitation  of  your 
heart,  in  the  indecision  of  your  will  have  faith. 
Have  faith  in  God,  but  be  such  that  God  can 
have  faith  in  you: 

"  Perish  folly  and  cunning! 

Perish  all  that  fears  the  light! 
Whether  winning,  whether  losing, 
'  Trust  in  God  and  do  the  right.' " 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          69 

Every  Commencement  brings  anew  to  the 
mind  and  heart  the  immortality  of  the  college 
and  the  mortality  of  the  men  who  make  the 
college.  No  work  of  man  is  so  lasting  as  the 
college.  But  the  men  who  are  or  were  its 
students,  the  men  who  teach  in  its  halls  and 
govern  its  doings  are  as  fast  passing  ships. 
Falls  the  hand,  but  the  torch  of  truth  never. 
As  one  hand  goes  down  another  seizes  the 
flame,  holds  it  aloft  and  bears  it  on,  a  signal 
and  a  symbol.  Ely  and  Baldwin  and  Gregory 
die.  Benediction  to  their  memory,  beneficence 
to  their  work.  Others  accept  the  task  which 
they  laid  down  and  carry  these  tasks  on  to 
their  completion.  Yet  what  matters  the  swift- 
ness of  human  lives  if  only  their  living  help 
toward  the  realization  of  the  bright  dreams  of 
youth,  toward  the  incarnation  of  the  right,  and 
toward  the  supremacy  of  a  sublime  faith.  For 
no  one  of  us  can  wish  for  himself  long  life  ex- 
cept as  length  of  days  teach  these  truths — 
that  the  world  is  made  for  goodness  and  for 
happiness,  that  the  rule  of  right  is  the  only  rule 
of  conduct,  and  that  faith  in  the  divine  is  man's 
supreme  human  power. 

The  members  of  the  graduating  classes: 
You  have  come  to  the  beginning  of  the  last 
hours  of  your  college  life.  Youth  is  vanish- 


70         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

ing;  vanishing  is  also  the  dream.  "And 
Jacob  awaked  out  of  his  sleep."  "And 
Jacob  vowed  a  vow  saying:  If  God  will  be 
with  me,  and  will  keep  me  in  this  way  that  I 
go,  and  will  give  me  bread  to  eat  and  raiment 
to  put  on,  so  that  I  come  again  to  my  father's 
house  in  peace,  then  shall  the  Lord  be  my 
God."  God  was  with  Jacob.  God  kept  him. 
God  ministered  unto  him.  God  gave  to  him 
a  better  and  a  nobler  life  than  he  even  dared 
to  ask  for.  I  pray  that  God  will  keep  you.  I 
pray  that  he  may  be  better  to  you  than  your 
most  darling  wish  can  suggest.  I  pray  that 
God  may  bring  you  back  to  this  place  in  recur- 
ring anniversaries  bearing  richest  blessings. 
I  am  sure  that  it  will  be  thus.  For  life  should 
grow  richer  with  each  passing  year.  Length- 
ening life  should  have  larger  treasure  in  itself 
and  larger  treasure  in  other  lives.  Life  should 
be  in  its  onward  progress  as  a  river.  The  river 
loses  the  swiftness  and  the  roar  of  its  mountain 
origin.  It  loses  the  narrowness  of  its  first 
channels.  But  it  gains  in  breadth.  Its  depths 
become  more  deep  and  more  calm.  It  comes 
into  relations  with  the  great  ocean  and  it  bears 
the  commerce  of  the  world  on  its  bosom. 
Your  life,  as  onward  it  goes,  may  lose  some- 
what of  its  swiftness  of  action,  its  impetuous- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         71 

ness  of  feeling-,  its  rushing  influences  and  ten- 
dencies. But  if  it  lose  these,  it  gains  in  a 
widening  of  relationships,  in  the  deepening  of 
its  profound  meanings,  and  it  bears  in  itself  an 
increasing  treasury  of  the  best  things  of  in- 
finite space  and  of  endless  time.  It  may  have, 
as  it  goes  on,  more  of  the  shadows  of  earth,  but 
it  also  will  have  more  of  the  images  of  heaven. 
For  the  life  that  begins  in  the  dream  of  the 
best  things  is  the  life  that  holds  out  the  bright- 
est promise  of  being  the  best  life.  The  life 
that  begins  in  the  dream,  of  righteousness  has 
the  promise  of  the  reality  of  righteousness;  and 
the  life  that  begins  in  the  dream  of  faith  has 
the  holiest  assurance  of  being  a  life  of  faith  in 
man  and  God.  Such  a  life  is  at  once  human 
and  divine.  Such  a  life  I  know  your  dream 
promises.  Such  a  life  may  the  eternal  God 
help  you  to  live. 


72         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 


VI 

THE  EVOLUTION  OF  CHARACTER 

"  Within  three  days  ye  shall  pass  over  this  Jordan, 
to  go  in  to  possess  the  land  which  the  Lord  your 
God  giveth  you  to  possess  it." — Joshua  i.  n. 

THESE  words  are  a  picture  of  the  fin- 
ishing of  one  experience  of  life  and 
the  passing  on  to  another  experience. 
The  experience  is  finished;  it  opens  to  another 
experience.  It  is  complete  and  conservative, 
yet  it  is  also  progressive.  Because  conserva- 
tive, it  is  progressive.  It  goes  back  into  the 
past  in  order  to  go  forward  into  the  future. 
The  Hebrew  is  passing  his  boundary.  The 
captivity  of  the  Hebrew  is  ended.  He  has 
seen  the  Egyptians  dead  on  the  seashore. 
Past,  too,  the  forty  years  of  wandering;  van- 
ished the  guidance  of  pillar  of  cloud  and  pillar 
of  fire;  ceased  the  falling  of  manna  from  be- 
neficent skies,  the  gushing  of  springs  from 
flinty  rocks.  Behind  him  lies  a  land  of  sla- 
very and  of  wandering;  before  him  lies  the 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          73 

land  of  promise.  Pharaoh,  the  task-master,  is 
dead;  Moses,  the  schoolmaster,  is  buried; 
Joshua,  the  man  of  self-mastery,  lives  and 
leads. 

These  words,  therefore,  are  a  picture  of 
what  I  may  call  the  evolution  of  character. 

Life  has  three  stages,  more  or  less  clearly 
distinguished.  Life  begins  in  subjection.  The 
first  the  child  knows  of  the  exterior  world  is 
its  resistance  to  himself.  This  resistance  he 
tries  to  resist,  and  the  result  is  that  he  comes 
to  himself.  He  is  also  subject  to  mother  and 
to  father.  Their  commands  he  is  to  obey, 
and  to  obey  without  reason.  If  he  is  submis- 
sive, he  is  contented  and  happy;  if  he  is  not 
submissive,  he  is  discontented  and  unhappy; 
but  obey  he  must.  Obedience  is  the  first  ele- 
ment in  life  in  either  human  or  animal.  Will  is 
strong  in  the  first  days  of  the  child,  and  in- 
tellect is  weak.  Will  is  the  last  to  die  in  the 
last  days  of  the  old  man.  Intellect  follows  will 
in  the  disciplines  of  infancy.  Intellect  pre- 
cedes will  in  the  declines  of  senility.  But 
the  will  which  is  first  in  life  is  a  will  in  sub- 
jection. Subjection  to  law  is  the  first  stage 
in  the  development  of  character.  It  is  a  stage 
in  which  law  reigns;  impersonal,  universal, 
necessary  law. 


74         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

The    second    stage   is   the   stage   which    I 
shall  call  personality.     It  is  the  stage  of  the 
enlarging,  quickening,  fructifying  life  of  the 
intellect.     Reason  is  able  to  receive  reasons. 
Knowledge  is  gained.     The  will  becomes  en- 
lightened as  well  as  strengthened.     Self-guid- 
ance emerges.     The  relations  of  the  man,  of 
the  child,  to  the  exterior  world  become  more 
sympathetic.     The  schoolhouse  opens  its  door, 
the  book  its  pages,  the  friend  his  heart.     Ex- 
perience becomes  a  minister.     Life  is  trans- 
muted into  a  story  book  in  which  each  day  is 
a  page.     Liberty  enlarges.     One's  own  will 
unites    in    fitting    forms    with    other    wills. 
Gradually  confinement  vanishes.      Gradually 
the  value  of  personal  relationship   emerges. 
Sympathy,  love,  helpfulness,  watchfulness,  are 
given  and  are  received.     Personality  enlarges 
in  the  man  himself,  and  his  own  personality 
twines  itself  around  other  personalities,  and 
is  in  turn  itself  enwrapped  by  these  same  per- 
sonalities.    Each   life   comes  to  interpret  to 
itself  what  the  great  Browning  is  trying  to  in- 
terpret to  us  blind  readers  of  his  books:  the 
power  of  personality  brought  into  relation 
with  other  personalities.    Thus  closes  the  sec- 
ond stage  in  the  development  of  life  and  of 
character. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         75 

The  third  stage  grows  out  of  the  two  that 
have  gone  before.  Now  dawns  the  age  of 
self-mastery.  The  man  comes  to  himself.  The 
intellect  sees  for  itself.  The  judgment  weighs 
evidence  for  itself.  The  appetites  are  con- 
trolled through  and  in  selfhood.  The  affec- 
tions recognize  their  place  and  function.  The 
will  comes  to  its  own  autonomy.  It  calls  no 
man  master.  "  I  am  my  own  man,"  says  the 
man  to  himself. 

These  three  stages  I  have  pictured  as  suc- 
cessive, but  they  are  not  always  successive. 
Sometimes  they  are  almost  contemporaneous, 
and  always  some  parts  of  them  overlap  parts 
of  the  others.  Sometimes  the  period  we  call 
subjection  goes  over  into  the  period  of  inde- 
pendence. Independence  often  goes  back  to 
and  gets  firm  roots  in  the  period  we  call  sub- 
jection. The  period  we  call  personality 
reaches  out  and  touches  on  one  side  the  period 
of  confinement,  and  on  the  other  the  age  of 
self-mastery.  And  yet  we  do  recognize  that 
these  three  periods  are  seen  in  the  human  lives 
that  we  know. 

These  three  stages  belong  in  a  sense  to 
the  life  of  the  scholar  as  well  as  to  the  life 
of  a  man  as  a  man.  At  first  the  scholar  is  a 
subject.  He  learns  what  he  is  told  to  learn. 


76          A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

The  value  of  his  learning  he  knows  not.  Its 
significance  he  perceives  not.  He  is  ruled  by 
rules  or  by  rulers.  But  presently  out  of  this 
subjection  he  comes  to  feel  the  presence  of 
personal  love  and  helpfulness  and  inspiration. 
He  is  watched  and  supervised.  Principles  take 
the  place  of  specific  rules.  His  own  learning 
comes  to  be  adjusted  to  the  learning  of  others 
who  are  friends  and  companions  and  guides. 
Soon  he  reaches  the  third  stage.  He  chooses 
his  own  path  of  knowledge.  In  this  path  he 
walks  fast  or  slow,  far  or  near,  as  he  sees  fit. 
Subjection,  supervision,  mastery,  that  is  the 
order  of  life  in  the  scholar. 

I  might  go  on  to  say  that  in  a  general  way 
this  threefold  development  has  taken  place  in 
the  growth  of  the  American  college.  The 
early  college  was  one  of  minute  prescription 
of  detail  for  each  hour.  Penalties  severe  were 
exacted  for  any  infraction  of  these  rules.  The 
old  colonial  college  was  a  college  of  this  type. 
The  college  that  followed  represented  a  close 
supervision  of  and  by  personalities.  The  col- 
lege was  the  master  of  the  boy  at  every  step 
of  his  way.  The  college  was  a  school  of 
pupils  and  of  masters.  The  successor  of  the 
college  of  the  second  type  is  the  college  of 
to-day.  The  college  of  to-day  is  largely  a  col- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          77 

lection  of  men,  each  of  whom  is  his  own 
master.  The  teacher  is  one  of  years  more,  of 
truth  richer,  of  character  stronger  than  are 
possessed  by  those  whom  he  teaches;  but  after 
all  he  is  simply  a  guide,  an  inspiring  force,  an 
instructor,  a  constructive  power  for  the  lives 
and  the  characters  with  which  he  is  called  into 
association.  To-day  the  college  is  inclined  to 
say  to  the  student  who  is  not  worthy  to  be  his 
own  master,  that  he  had  better  go  to  his  home 
or  go  back  to  the  fitting  school.  I  do  not  fail 
to  recognize  that  this  system  in  college  has 
many  perils.  Liberty  is  always  perilous.  But 
liberty  is  God's  method  in  training  men.  It 
is  the  method  of  the  college  of  to-day.  All 
of  the  objections  to  the  liberty  of  God's 
method  can  be  applied  to  the  liberty  of  the 
college  method.  And  many  of  the  arguments 
in  favor  of  the  method  of  the  liberty  of  God 
can  be  applied  as  arguments  in  favor  of  the 
liberty  of  the  college. 

It  would  not  be  difficult  also  to  show  that 
these  three  stages  of  subjection,  supervision, 
and  mastery  represent  three  stages  in  the 
growth  of  a  nation.  It  would  be  easy,  I  think, 
to  distinguish  these  periods  in  the  history  of 
Old  England.  It  would  be  easy,  also,  to  dis- 
tinguish these  periods  in  the  history  of  New 


78         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

England  and  in  the  life  that  has  grown  out  of 
the  early  colonies. 

It  sometimes  happens,  it  must  be  confessed, 
that  this  proper  order  becomes  reversed.  The 
child,  instead  of  being  the  subject,  becomes 
his  own  master.  The  parent,  instead  of  giv- 
ing commands,  gives  only  counsel.  And  the 
counsel  is  unheeded,  as  the  command  would 
be  disobeyed.  Or,  the  child  may  grow  to 
man's  estate  and  may  still  be  a  child  in  will. 
He  is  still  the  slave  of  others;  he  has  not  be- 
come the  master  of  himself.  When  a  child 
tries  to  be  a  man,  though  still  a  child,  we  are 
filled  with  laughter  and  contempt.  When  the 
man,  though  a  man,  is  still  a  child,  we  are 
filled  with  pity. 

The  college  man  or  woman  has  passed  the 
first  two  stages,  and  has  entered  well  into  the 
third.  The  home  is  still  a  home,  but  it  is  no 
longer  the  home  of  obedience  to  rules  and  of 
minute  supervision.  The  college  of  super- 
vision, of  rules  and  of  commands  has  for- 
ever gone.  Already  into  the  home  and  the 
college  has  come  the  sense  of  self,  growing 
with  growth,  and  developing  with  development. 
And  now  at  the  close  of  the  college,  this  sense 
of  self-mastery  becomes  significant  and  su- 
preme. For  better  or  for  worse,  for  richer 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          79 

or  for  poorer,  for  happiness  or  for  sorrow,  you 
are  your  own  master. 

This  self-mastery,  this  last  and  highest 
stage  in  the  development  of  character,  has  in 
itself  at  least  three  elements. 

One  of  these  elements  is  egoism.  By  ego- 
ism I  mean  confidence  in  self.  By  egoism  I 
mean  a  just,  worthy  and  proper  confidence  in 
self.  Great  men  always  are  egoistic.  Egoism  is 
the  condition  of  aggressiveness.  Without  ag- 
gressiveness, no  man  proves  himself  to  be 
great.  Take  Emerson's  representative  men: 
Plato,  the  philosopher,  is  the  man  of  egoism; 
Swedenborg,  the  mystic,  is  the  man  of  egoism ; 
Montaigne,  the  skeptic,  is  the  man  of  egoism; 
Shakespeare,  the  poet,  is  the  man  of  egoism; 
Napoleon,  the  man  of  the  world,  is  the  man 
of  egoism;  Goethe,  the  writer,  is  the  man  of 
egoism.  Each  of  these  great  men  is  a  man  of 
egoism.  Each  of  them  has  trust  in  himself. 
It  is  not  cockeyism,  it  is  not  pride  blown  out 
so  big  that  it  has  become  thin,  and  is  in  peril  of 
collapsing  from  its  very  big  thinness.  Trust 
rests  upon  the  calm  weighing  of  the  evidence 
presented  by  one's  self  for  doing  great  things. 

Some  college  men  have  too  much  trust  in 
themselves.  They  are  inclined  to  trust  in 
themselves  because  they  are  college  men.  This 


80         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

is  foolish  while  one  is  in  college;  it  is  more 
than  foolish  when  one  has  gone  forth  from  col- 
lege. Folks  will  soon  forget  whether  you  are 
college  bred.  They  do  not  forget  what  you 
are  or  what  you  can  do.  To  them  the  process 
of  getting  power  is  a  zero.  To  them  the  re- 
sults are,  the  power  itself,  is  supremely  signifi- 
cant. Trust  yourself  exactly  and  only  for 
what  you  are  and  for  what  you  can  do. 
On  the  evening  of  the  day  in  which  I 
was  inaugurated  an  officer  of  this  Uni- 
versity, I  asked  a  member  of  our  Board 
of  Trustees,  President  Hayes,  if  he  knew  Mr. 
Lincoln.  He  said  he  had  met  Mr.  Lincoln 
once  or  twice.  I  asked  him  what  im- 
pression Mr.  Lincoln  gave  to  him  as  to 
his  conception  of  his  own  power.  Presi- 
dent Hayes  replied:  "  Mr.  Lincoln  impressed 
me  as  knowing  that  he  himself  was  a  stronger 
man  than  any  man  whom  he  had  ever  met." 
Lincoln  was  worthy  of  such  self-confidence, 
of  course;  and  such  self-confidence  produced 
in  Lincoln,  not  vanity,  not  weakness  of  pride, 
but  a  mighty  seriousness  and  solemnity  of  re- 
sponsibility. A  proper  self-interpretation  will 
always  produce  seriousness  in  any  man.  It 
will  also  give  to  each  man  a  sense  of  mastery 
in  and  of  himself.  And  this  mastery  of  him- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          81 

self  will  also  give  to  himself  a  proper  inter- 
pretation of  himself.  Egoism,  not  egotism; 
self-respect,  not  self-conceit;  self-love,  not 
selfishness,  is  an  element  in  self-mastery. 

Self-mastery  also  has  in  itself  the  element 
of  work.  The  master  of  himself  is  a  man  of 
work.  Work  is  both  a  cause  and  a  result  of 
self-mastery.  Work  is  an  expression  of  the 
worker.  In  expression  man  finds  a  larger 
self.  Work  is  his  alter  ego,  and  also  it  may  be 
a  magnified  ego.  The  piece  of  work  done  is  a 
convex  mirror  of  the  worker.  The  expres- 
sion of  self  in  work  reacts  on  the  man  and 
makes  him  larger.  The  humblest  work  gives 
dignity  to  the  worker  who  has  put  himself 
into  it.  Such  an  architect  as  the  great  Rich- 
ardson, of  our  own  time,  must  have  felt  this 
enlarged  selfhood  as  he  saw  his  ideas  soaring 
skyward,  like  birds  on  wings  of  stone.  Such 
a  poet  as  our  own  Lowell  must  have  felt  this 
enlarged  selfhood  as  he  wrote  the  "  Com- 
memoration Ode,"  or  the  "  Cathedral/'  Such 
a  romancer  as  our  own  Hawthorne  must  have 
felt  this  magnified  power  of  himself,  as  he 
created  the  immortals. 

It  seems  to  me  that  this  is  somewhat  the 
meaning  of  the  words  written  at  the  very  be- 
ginning of  the  Bible,  in  which  it  is  said:  "  God 


82         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

saw  everything  that  he  had  made,  and  behold, 
it  was  very  good."  This  self-satisfaction  of 
God  with  his  own  work  helps  to  prove  how 
good  and  great  he  himself  was.  He  was  in. 
a  sense  more  of  a  master  of  himself  and  more 
conscious  of  his  mastery  when  he  had  finished 
the  creation  and  looked  upon  it  than  he  was 
before  creation  began.  Necessity  carries  along 
with  itself  beneficences.  The  necessity  of 
work  carries  along  with  itself  enlargement 
of  selfhood.  And  this  enlarged  selfhood 
means  a  larger  humanity,  and  if  a  larger  hu- 
manity, a  better  and  stronger  one.  Work  mag- 
nifies. Ignorance  minimizes.  The  person  of 
the  worker  becomes  so  great  that  his  own 
personality  goes  out  into  other  personalities. 
He  masters  them  by  his  own  enlarging  self- 
mastery.  Work  is  thus  both  a  cause  and  a  re- 
sult in  this  self-mastery  of  man.  O,  my 
friends,  thank  God  that  you  are  called  to  be 
workers!  If  man  had  never  fallen,  there 
might  have  been  no  need  of  work,  but  when 
man  had  fallen  the  good  God  sent  the  good 
angel  Toil  to  lead  man  back  to  himself  along 
the  pathway  of  service.  Thank  God  that  you 
are  put  in  a  world  of  work !  Thank  God  that 
you  are  put  in  an  age  that  calls  for  work !  As 
you  love  your  own  self  and  wish  to  have  for 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         83 

yourself  the  largest  selfhood,  ever  and  every- 
where be  a  worker. 

Self-mastery  also  has  in  itself  the  element 
of  loyalty  to  the  highest  principle  and  the 
highest  being.  Self-mastery  implies  respect 
for  all  facts  and  truths.  The  freedom  of  self- 
mastery  is  born  of  perfect  obedience  to  per- 
fect law.  The  man  master  of  self  has  sufficient 
intellectual  acumen  to  see  that  there  are  per- 
sonalities more  wise  than  himself.  The  man 
master  of  himself  has  sufficient  heart  to  feel 
the  presence  of  personalities  more  present  and 
more  pervasive  than  his  own.  The  man  mas- 
ter of  himself  has  sufficient  will  to  recognize 
the  fitness  of  his  will  being  ruled  by  wills  more 
puissant.  The  man  master  of  himself  has  suffi- 
cient conscience  to  accept  the  universal  law 
of  Right.  Men  have  long  discussed  whether 
God  exists;  and  if  He  exists  at  all,  how?  For 
us  such  discussion  in  the  college  is  ended. 
But  more  important  than  the  mere  principle 
of  theism  held  by  a  man  is  the  relation  which 
the  man  holds  to  the  God  who  is  embodied 
in  this  principle.  A  mighty  mental  concep- 
tion of  the  theistic  fact  may  have  slight  influ- 
ence over  life,  for  the  conception  is  purely 
mental;  the  conception  is  never  translated 
into  a  personal  principle  of  belief. 


84         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

A  slight  mental  conception  of  God  may 
have  great  power  over  life,  for  this  feeble  con- 
ception has  been  translated  into  a  personal 
principle.  The  power  of  God  in  a  life  is  a 
product  made  up  of  the  multiplicand  of  the 
mental  conception  and  of  the  multiplier  of  the 
personal  grasp  which  the  man  has  on  this  con- 
ception. For  one,  I  should  prefer  a  feeble  in- 
tellectual conception  and  a  mighty  volition 
grappling  this  belief  to  one's  being,  before  I 
should  prefer  a  well-ordered  intellectual  be- 
lief and  only  a  feeble  volition  to  make  this 
belief  personal.  But  when  to  a  mighty  intel- 
lectual conception  of  the  God  is  joined  a 
mighty  volition  which  makes  this  idea  a  part 
of  one's  character,  the  whole  person  of  the 
man  comes  into  the  largest,  the  noblest,  the 
deepest  and  the  highest  relationship  to  the 
profoundest  principle,  to  the  highest  being. 
The  man  thus  comes  into  a  self-mastery;  a  self- 
mastery  which  is  born  of  loyalty  to  the  high- 
est; a  self-mastery  which  results  in  loyalty  to 
the  highest.  He  has  a  self-mastery  which 
comes  from  perfect  obedience  to  perfect  law. 
He  is  master  of  himself  because  he  has  found 
himself  in  this  Master  and  Maker  of  us  all, 
God. 

This  self-mastery,  as  seen  in  trust  in  one's 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         85 

self,  gives  egoism.  This  self-mastery,  as  seen 
in  work,  gives  altruism,  and  a  larger  egoism. 
This  self-mastery,  as  seen  in  loyalty  to  the 
highest,  gives  us  religion. 

This  self-mastery  never  exists  for  itself.  A 
part  of  the  being  of  the  individual  man,  it  also 
holds  relations  to  other  individual  men.  It 
may  be  called  a  complex  of  self-masteries.  All 
these  self-masteries  are  to  be  adjusted  each  to 
the  other.  Each  exists  for  all  and  all  exist  for 
each.  Every  grain  of  Stardust  has  relation  to 
all  the  worlds.  Move  one,  and  you  change  the 
center  of  gravity  of  the  universe.  All  the 
worlds  have  relation  to  the  grain  of  Stardust. 
The  worlds  preserve  it  in  its  place  and  rela- 
tions. Thus,  the  universe,  with  its  myriad 
stars,  having  infinite  space  to  wander  in,  rolls 
on  in  perfect  order,  keeping  time  with  the 
centuries  and  with  the  seconds.  Each  man  as 
he  comes  to  his  large  selfhood,  as  he  becomes 
master,  has  relations  with  humanity  and 
divinity,  and  divinity  and  humanity  have  re- 
lations with  him.  He  exists  for  all  and 
all  exist  for  him.  All  of  the  component  parts 
of  humanity  should  move  through  the  death- 
less ages  in  perfect  harmony,  in  larger  devel- 
opments, in  higher  attainments  of  being.  Is- 
rael, with  whom  our  sermon  began,  came  to 


86          A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

his  splendid  zenith  in  Solomon,  and  then  fell 
into  the  night  of  darkness  and  exile. 

But  humanity  in  God  should  come  in  the 
progress  of  the  ages  to  a  zenith  from  which 
it  should  never  decline,  but  whence  it  should 
seek  a  still  higher  and  higher  zenith  of  which 
the  limitations  are  to  be  found  only  in  the  in- 
finite Godhead.  Such  I  do  believe  is  the 
destiny  of  humanity  and  of  every  worthy  mem- 
ber of  it.  For  this  glorious  consummation, 
"  the  whole  creation  groaneth  and  travaileth  in 
pain."  Through  all  these  struggles  and  trials 
and  masteries,  the  creation  is  reaching  up- 
ward and  onward  to  this  glorious,  infinite  ful- 
fillment. Such  a  consummation  is  the  result 
of  the  adoption  of  sons  into  the  love  of  God, 
is  the  recognition  of  the  divine  fatherhood  of 
the  human  spirit,  is  the  making  of  all  of  love 
into  law,  and  is  the  transmutation  of  all  of  law 
into  love.  All  the  disciplines  of  training,  all  the 
learning  of  scholarship,  all  the  refinements  of 
culture  are  for  the  sublimation  and  extending 
of  this  self-mastery  unto  God  and  into  human- 
ity. 

I  cannot  forget  that  such  was  the  life  of  the 
Christ.  He  was  subject  to  his  parents.  In 
his  subjection  he  grew,  growing  in  favor  with 
God  and  man.  As  he  grew,  he  was  the  one 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         87 

whom  his  mother  ever  observed,  pondering 
his  words.  Out  of  this  period  of  oversight, 
he  came  to  that  day  when  his  mother  directed 
that  his  command  should  be  obeyed.  Master 
of  himself,  Christ  has  infinite  confidence  in 
himself.  He  knows  he  can  summon  legions 
of  angels  to  his  service.  He  knows  that  he 
has  power  to  lay  down  his  life  and  that  he  has 
power  to  take  it  again.  Master  of  himself,  he 
is  the  supreme  worker.  "  My  father  worketh 
hitherto  and  I  work."  Master  of  himself,  he 
is  loyal  to  God.  Into  his  hands  he  commits 
his  willing  spirit.  Subjection,  supervision, 
mastery,  these  are  the  three  stages  in  that  di- 
vine and  human  life.  Self-confidence,  work, 
loyalty  to  God  are  the  three  stages  in  that  self- 
mastery  which  is  supreme.  And  how  this  self- 
mastery  of  the  Christ  goes  out  into  men's  be- 
ing to  help  them  to  be  masters  of  themselves ! 
The  members  of  the  graduating  classes: 
You  were  born  into  homes.  Your  help- 
lessness found  care.  You  were  held  in  obedi- 
ence. You  came  to  the  college.  Tuition  and 
tutelage  have  been  yours.  You  stand  at  the 
end  of  the  period  of  tuition.  Three  days  hence 
you  are  to  pass  over  the  Jordan  to  go  in  to 
possess  the  land  which  the  Lord  your  God 
giveth  you  to  possess  it.  You  stand  upon  the 


88         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

border  of  the  promised  land  of  self-mastery. 
You  have  come  thus  far,  not  for  the  sake  of 
the  coming,  but  for  the  sake  of  the  crossing. 

You  have  come  out  and  up  from  the  home 
and  the  college  to  go  out  to  possess  the  land 
which  we  call  Life.  It  is  a  very  good  land. 
Its  soil  is  fertile,  its  fruits  are  rich,  its  skies  a 
tender  blue,  its  rewards  great.  It  was  never 
so  good  as  it  is  at  this  very  hour.  It  never 
seemed  so  good  to  you,  I  am  sure,  as  now 
it  seems.  It  has,  it  must  be  confessed,  giants 
and  walled  towns.  Its  precipices  are  steep, 
and  some  of  its  waters  are  as  a  Dead  Sea.  But 
this  land  that  we  call  Life  is  worth  taking. 
Its  giants  are  not  so  terrible  as  they  may  seem. 
Its  precipices  are  not  so  high  or  so  steep  but 
that  you  can  scale  them.  The  land  is  worth  tak- 
ing. The  life  that  opens  before  you  is  worth 
living.  No  life  should  be  so  worth  living  as 
the  life  of  a  man  or  the  woman  who 
enters  into  life  with  a  college  training  in 
these  last  years  of  this  nineteenth  century. 
Never  did  the  century  call  for  the  largest 
power  of  self-mastery  as  now  it  calls  for  it. 
Never  did  the  world  call  with  a  voice  more 
commanding  or  more  exultant  than  now  it 
calls  for  men  and  women  who  are  masters 
of  themselves.  Therefore,  I  rejoice  as  I  point 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         89 

out  to  you  this  land.  Happy  for  you  am  I 
because  you  can  make  your  life  of  such 
abounding  worth,  and  happy  for  the  world  and 
the  age  am  I  because  you  are  coming  to  the 
help  of  the  world  and  of  the  age.  Go  forward, 
go  upward.  Cross  your  Jordan.  Possess  the 
land  of  Life.  For  the  Lord  your  God  giveth 
it  to  you  to  possess  it. 


90         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 


VII 
THE  WORTH  OF  PERSONALITY 

"  Follow  me."— i  John  i.  43. 

IT  is  the  beginning.  Christ  is  doing  His 
first  work,  calling  His  first  disciples, 
speaking  His  first  command.  That  com- 
mand might  fittingly  have  been  based  upon 
hope,  prophetic  of  the  sublime  future;  that 
command  might  fittingly  have  been  based 
upon  general  truth,  intimating  how  many  are 
the  meanings  and  relations  of  that  realm  in 
which  He  was  Master;  but  that  command  was 
simple  and  absolute :  Follow  Me !  That  com- 
mand grew  out  of  the  significance  of  His  own 
personality.  For  the  personality  of  the  Christ 
is  the  most  significant.  His  work  you  may 
call  miraculous;  His  words  may  be  described 
as  such  as  never  man  spake ;  but  more  wonder- 
ful than  work,  more  unique  than  speech,  is  His 
personality.  Son  of  Man,  he  stands  as  the 
type  of  humanity;  Son  of  God,  He  emerges 
as  the  revelation  of  the  Godhead.  To  John 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         91 

He  appears  as  the  Lamb  of  God;  to  those 
meeting  Him,  He  seems  worthy  of  being  ad- 
dressed as  Master.  His  first  command,  as  His 
last,  was:  Follow  Me! 

My  topic,  therefore,  is  "  The  Worth  of  Per- 
sonality." A  general  topic,  I  know,  but  as  we 
go  on  together,  I  hope  it  may  become  suffi- 
ciently specific. 

Personality  is  what  one  is.  Personality  is 
one's  entire  being.  Personality  is  reason  and 
feeling  and  conscience  and  will.  Personality 
stands  apart  from  its  attributes;  it  is  distinct 
from  activities  and  from  the  results  of  activity. 
Its  strength  is  the  strength  of  its  elements.  Its. 
strength  is  the  strength  of  reason.  Its  power 
consists  in  its  mighty  grasp  on  truth.  Its 
might  is  the  might  of  the  sense  of  reality.  Its 
strength  is  the  strength  of  the  heart.  Great 
lovers  are  great  personalities.  Great  person- 
alities are  great  lovers  or  great  haters.  Its 
might  is  the  might  of  the  conscience,  the  in- 
sight into  moral  relations,  the  impulse  to  do 
the  right  and  to  avoid  the  wrong,  the  approval 
of  right  done,  the  remorse  for  wrong  com- 
mitted. Insight,  impulse,  approval  are  mighty 
in  a  great  personality.  Its  strength  is  the 
strength  of  the  will.  Given  a  choice  large, 
strong,  persistent,  and  a  personality  strong, 


92         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

large,  lasting  is  declared.  Justice,  temperance, 
courage,  reverence,  are  its  marks.  Such  is 
what  I  call  personality. 

Personality  is  the  greatest  power  in  life  and 
in  being.  On  general  grounds  one  would  ex- 
pect that  personality  would  be  a  great  power 
in  life  and  in  being.  For  personality 
represents  the  splendid  and  magnificent  crown 
of  all  the  creative,  preservative,  and  develop- 
ing processes.  It  stands  last  in  the  period  of 
Genesis;  it  gives  name  to  all  the  preceding 
creations.  It  represents  God  in  the  earth. 

We  discuss  communism  and  socialism  and 
other  methods  for  the  improvement  of  society. 
The  need  of  discussion  and  reflection  we 
deeply  feel.  The  woes  of  society  are  terrible. 
But  at  once  we  lay  down  the  great  truth  that 
no  new  system  of  sociology,  that  no  new  social 
birth  shall  rob  us  of  the  supreme  advantage, 
the  crown  of  the  struggles  of  a  thousand  years, 
the  infinite  worth  of  personality.  For  these 
thousands  of  years,  through  processes  con- 
scious and  unconscious,  nature  has  been  try- 
ing to  make  men,  individuals,  persons,  and  to 
make  them  of  the  highest  type,  of  the  richest 
fullness.  Let  us  not  be  willing  to  undo  her 
work  or  to  render  its  continued  doing  more 
difficult. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         93 

The  power  of  personality  receives  special 
illustration  in  the  life  which  humanity  attrib- 
utes to  nature.  Nature  seems  willing  to  adopt 
a  personal  relation  to  us.  The  places  and 
conditions  where  we  have  lived,  suffered,  re- 
joiced, become  a  part  of  ourselves.  The 
grounds,  the  buildings  of  the  colleges  are  to- 
day quite  unlike  what  they  were  when  you, 
to  whom  I  speak,  entered.  The  mason  and 
the  carpenter  and  the  landscape  gardener  may 
or  may  not  have  plied  their  vocations;  the 
stone  and  the  timber  may  or  may  not  be  the 
same  that  they  were  four  years  ago,  but  the 
ground  and  the  buildings  are  quite  different 
to  you  from  what  they  then  were.  There,  over 
yonder  in  the  park,  you  walked  one  afternoon, 
and,  with  nature  as  a  witness,  you  pledged 
yourself  to  brave  doings  and  nobler  living; 
here  is  the  room  in  which  you  sat  when  a 
revelation  of  capacity  in  yourself,  for  which 
you  had  been  blindly  hoping,  was  made  mag- 
nificently and  gloriously  clear;  in  yonder  hall 
is  the  room  in  which  you  suffered  the  keenest 
pang  of  your  life,  or  within  which  burst  upon 
you  the  deepest  and  most  exultant  joy.  That 
park,  that  room,  are  no  longer  stone  or  timber, 
but  rather  they  are  become  filled  with  the  per- 
sonality of  your  being,  made  sacred,  made 


94         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

vital,  by  your  own  personal  experiences.  Al- 
ways, everywhere,  nature  becomes  something 
different  because  man  has  wrought,  or  suf- 
fered, or  rejoiced.  We  fill  our  Gettysburg 
acres  with  monuments  to  the  men  who  dared 
and  died,  and  we  visit  the  Lake  Country,  not 
because  of  "  mighty  Hellvellyn,"  or  Grasmere, 
or  Windermere,  but  because  Wordsworth  here 
sung,  because  Coleridge  here  mused,  and  Har- 
riet Martineau  here  wrote,  and  the  Arnolds 
here  had  a  home.  Personality  enriches  nature, 
and  nature  gives  herself  back  to  man  as  much 
richer  as  she  has  been  able  to  receive  from  his 
personality. 

But  the  hour  presses  upon  us  the  very  defin- 
ite question  of  method.  How  is  one  to  de- 
velop a  worthy  personality  in  himself? 

Personality  is  developed  through  person- 
ality. Association  with  one  who  is  a  great 
personality  develops  personality. 

Socrates  left  no  writings,  he  left  a  Plato; 
Christ  left  no  writings,  he  left  a  Saint  John. 
Like  makes  like.  We  are  closing  the  nine- 
teenth century.  It  has  been  a  great  century. 
Call  over  the  roll  of  its  great  men ;  in  law  and 
jurisprudence,  Marshall  and  Jay  and  David 
Dudley  Field;  in  government,  Lincoln;  in 
romance,  Hawthorne  and  Cooper;  in  poetry, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         95 

Lowell  and  Longfellow;  in  preaching,  Brooks 
and  Beecher;  in  statesmanship,  Webster;  in 
finance,  Gallatin  and  Chase;  in  history,  Pres- 
cott  and  Parkman  and  Motley  and  Bancroft; 
in  science,  Agassiz  and  Gray  and  Henry  and 
Dana;  in  diplomacy,  the  Adamses  and  Jeffer- 
son; in  architecture,  Richardson;  in  painting, 
Hunt  and  Copley  and  Inness;  in  journalism, 
Greeley;  in  reformation,  Garrison  and  his 
associates;  and  abroad  it  is  the  century  of  Bis- 
marck and  Cavour  and  Gladstone,  of  Words- 
worth and  Tennyson,  of  Darwin  and  of 
Spencer.  And  these  are  great  personalities. 
Beneath  and  before  and  above  the  artist,  the 
statesman  and  the  scholar,  is  the  man.  Great 
personalities  make  great  personalities.  The 
power  of  one  personality  in  leading  to  the  best 
life  is  simply  magnificent.  The  two  men  who 
have  most  deeply  moved  modern  Oxford  are 
Benjamin  Jowett  and  T.  H.  Green.  Greater 
scholars  than  either  there  have  been,  but  not 
greater  personalities.  The  regard  for  the  one 
has  become  a  cult,  and  the  worship  of  the 
other  almost  a  religion.  The  American  col- 
lege is  a  power  in  scholarship;  it  establishes 
great  libraries;  it  equips  noble  laboratories; 
it  enrolls  great  scholars.  But  the  American 
college  is  also  a  power  in  forming  great  per- 


96          A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

sonalities.  It,  therefore,  must  have  great  per- 
sonalities as  its  members.  If  one  were  obliged 
to  choose  between,  on  the  one  hand,  the  great 
scholar  and  the  small  personality,  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  between  the  great  personality  and 
the  unworthy  scholar,  of  course  the  decision 
would  be  in  favor  of  the  great  man.  But  this 
narrowness  of  choice  is  seldom  or  never  im- 
posed, for,  of  course,  great  personality  tends 
to  create  a  great  scholar,  and  great  scholarship 
tends  to  creat  a  great  personality.  And  one 
does  find — circumspice — great  scholarship 
united  with  great  personality,  and  large  per- 
sonality enriched  and  ennobled  by  great  schol- 
arship. 

In  the  galaxy  of  American  college  men, 
one  delights  to  recall  such  names  as  those 
of  Longfellow,  and  Lowell,  and  Woolsey,  and 
McCosh,  and  Dana,  and  Whitney,  and  Agas- 
siz,  and  Gray — men  in  whom  are  joined  to- 
gether broad  and  high  and  noble  learning, 
with  sweetness  of  life  and  purity  of  heart;  in 
whom  fine  and  firm  mental  health  is  united 
with  sound  scholarship  and  with  a  faith  de- 
vout, and  all  in  a  manner  that  is  divine.  The 
teachings  of  the  college  you  have  largely  for- 
gotten; the  teachers  you  will  never  forget. 
The  teachings  have  had  their  influence,  but 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH         97 

the  great  personalities  have  had  a  greater  in- 
fluence. Like  makes  like. 

Yet  an  influence  as  strong  and  vital  as  the 
personality  of  the  teacher  is  embodied  in  the 
personality  of  the  students.  No  companion- 
ship is  so  close,  no  friendship  so  lasting,  as 
are  the  companionships^  the  friendships  of  the 
college.  The  equality  of  circumstances,  the 
pursuit  of  similar  aims,  the  control  of  like 
duties,  the  doing  of  common  tasks,  the  like- 
ness of  all  conditions,  make  the  personalities 
of  college  life  constant  and  mighty.  College 
is  a  gathering  together  of  men  for  the  sake  of 
blessing  each  other  and  of  being  blessed.  Call 
the  college  not  a  monastery,  where  men 
dwell  alone  in  cells;  call  it  rather  a  convent 
where  students  gather  together  in  happy  com- 
panionship. Happy  that  college  that  is  en- 
riched from  year  to  year  by  throngs  of  noble 
youth  flocking  to  its  halls  in  order  to  be  with 
each  other!  Fruitful  in  results  as  well  as  happy 
in  memory  are  those  years  in  which  you  have 
thought,  felt,  spoken,  and  lived  with  those 
whom  you  call  classmates! 

As  I  have  been  speaking  I  have  not  for- 
gotten that  in  Him,  the  Incomparable  One, 
are  embodied  the  forces  of  supreme  help- 
fulness in  the  forming  of  a  mighty  personality. 


98         A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

The  words  He  spoke  represent  the  profound- 
est  utterances  upon  the  profoundest  subjects. 
His  memorabilia  make  up  the  great  books. 
Association  with  Him  in  thought  and  feel- 
ing, co-operation  with  Him  in  service,  tend 
to  make  a  great  personality.  His  point 
of  view  was  the  truth.  His  heart  was 
attuned  to  love.  As  one  is  with  the  Christ, 
one  finds  himself  true  to  truth,  loving  of 
love,  and  also  true  to  love  and  loving  of 
truth.  As  one  looks  upon  Him  he  sees  the 
divine  man  made  human.  No  desertion,  no 
denial,  no  betrayal,  no  crucifixion,  can  cause 
him  to  lose  foothold  on  the  solid  ground  of 
love  and  of  truth.  The  great  personality  of 
the  Christ  makes  a  great  personality. 

As  a  second  power  in  forming  personality 
I  name  the  book.  In  this  creative  process  the 
book  has  tremendous  power.  Books  that  are 
written  by  great  personalities,  books  that  deal 
with  great  personalities,  tend  to  make  great 
personalities.  Some  months  ago,  I  asked 
certain  members  of  one  of  the  classes  to  write 
out  for  me  the  names  of  the  three  books  which 
have  had  the  strongest  influence  in  the  forma- 
tion of  their  characters.  As  I  run  over  the  list 
these  are  among  the  titles:  David  Copper- 
field.,  The  Man  Without  a  Country,  Life  of 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH          99 

Lincoln,  Longfellow's  poems,  Ben  Hur,  Uncle 
Tom's  Cabin,  Shakespeare,  The  House  of  the 
Seven  Gables,  Pilgrim's  Progress,  The  New- 
comes,  Evangeline,  Imitation  of  Christ,  Phi- 
losophy of  the  Plan  of  Salvation,  Life  of  Web- 
ster, Les  Miserables,  Tale  of  Two  Cities,  Se- 
same and  Lilies,  Ivanhoe,  Romola,  and  Rob- 
inson Crusoe.  On  the  whole  these  are  great 
books.  They  are  personal  books,  and  they 
represent,  they  embody,  great  characters.  In 
mature  life  books  should  control,  guide,  and 
inspire.  One  should  put  himself  under  the 
power  of  those  books  which  are  worthy  to  con- 
trol, guide,  and  arouse.  The  books  that  you 
will  read  in  the  future  will  probably  be  few  in- 
number,  but  let  them  be  great  in  personality. 
I  care  not  of  what  type  they  may  be,  of  phi- 
losophy, of  history,  of  biography,  of  poetry,  but 
of  whatever  sort,  let  them  be  vital,  be  vital! 
Let  each  book  be  the  life-blood  of  a  master 
spirit !  Of  that  blood  drink  and  make  yourself 
a  master  spirit! 

The  greatest  of  books  is  the  greatest  be- 
cause it  is  from  the  greatest  of  beings.  It 
is  the  Book  of  God.  The  power  of  the  Book 
is  not  based  upon  its  being  a  book  of  science, 
or  a  book  of  history,  or  a  book  of  poetry,  but 
the  power  of  the  Book  lies  in  this,  that  it  is  the 


100       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

Book  of  God,  and  is  given  to  man.  Some- 
times we  fear  lest  the  Bible  has  lost  its  power 
over  society.  We  cry :  "  The  critics  are  tear- 
ing out  its  pages ! "  But  let  us  remember 
that  the  Bible  is  not  primarily  a  book  of  his- 
tory. The  Bible  is  first  a  book  about  God 
as  well  as  a  book  from  God.  I,  for  one,  re- 
joice in  the  work  of  the  critic.  Even  if  this 
work  does  give  us  a  smaller  Bible,  it  gives 
us  a  Bible  yet  more  divine.  We  may  well 
spare  the  Songs  of  Solomon,  only  provided 
that  we  have  the  Song  of  the  Lamb.  We  can 
well  lose  the  genealogies,  only  provided  we 
secure  a  divine  life  more  vital  and  more  per- 
sonal to  our  being.  The  Bible  has  its  chief 
worth  in  giving  us  God.  Let  it  be  used  as 
God's  book.  Let  it  become  a  power  of  divine 
personality  in  the  development  of  person- 
ality. 

The  fine  arts,  too,  ought  to  create  a  great  and 
fine  personality.  The  ministry  of  melody  and 
harmony  in  time,  the  ministry  of  beauty  in 
space,  embodied  in  painting  or  in  sculpture, 
is  holy;  and  yet  neither  music  nor  painting 
nor  sculpture  seems  to  make  great  characters. 
Of  course  the  reason  is  that  the  music  is  not 
great,  nor  the  painting  great;  yet  a  reason 
more  fundamental  may  be  that  the  fine  arts  are 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH 

designed  to  give  pleasure.  What  is  designed 
to  give  pleasure  has  a  motive  less  moving  than 
what  is  designed  to  create  greatness  and 
power.  As  Schiller  says:  "  Life  is  serious, 
art  is  joyous."  Other  things  are  mightier  than 
pleasure.  Right  is  mightier,  duty  is  mightier. 
Yet  everyone  may  well  put  before  himself  the 
end  of  making  the  fine  arts  so  strong  and  so 
fine  that  the  pleasure  they  bestow  shall  become 
akin  to  the  very  peace  of  God.  It  is  not  with- 
out significance  that  the  language  of  heaven 
is  referred  to  as  music  and  song.  A  great- 
work  it  is  indeed  for  you  to  aid  in  making 
the  fine  arts  of  worthy  power  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  worthiest  personality. 

My  third  suggestion  as  to  the  method  for 
forming  a  worthy  personality  refers  more  to 
condition  than  to  method.  In  the  develop- 
ment of  the  greatest  personality  power  largely 
comes  from  certain  conditions.  These  con- 
ditions relate  to  the  attitude  which  the  per- 
sonality holds  to  humanity.  They  relate  to 
the  point  of  view  which  you  will  occupy  in 
looking  at  men  and  men's  affairs.  This  atti- 
tude, which  is  best  fitted  to  develop  a  great 
personality,  let  me  at  once  say,  is  the  attitude 
of  truth,  of  duty,  and  of  love.  If  you  stand 
at  the  point  of  truth,  and  if  your  attitude  as 


1C2      .-A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

you  view  humanity  is  one  of  truthfulness,  you 
will  find  that  your  own  being  will  become 
great  in  its  truthfulness.  Accustom  yourself 
to  see  truth  clearly,  largely,  proportionately. 
Accustom  yourself  to  feel  truth  profoundly. 
Accustom  yourself  to  choose  truth  mightily. 
The  man  of  truth  is  the  man  of  power.  The 
false  man  is  the  weak  man.  The  man  of  truth 
is  the  brave  man.  The  false  man  is  the  cow- 
ard. The  man  of  truth  is  the  leader;  the  false 
man  is  the  straggler  and  the  deserter.  Truth 
magnifies  the  man  searching  for,  finding,  hold- 
ing, expressing  it.  The  false  minimizes  the 
man  that  treasures  it.  It  is  significant  that 
God  is  called  Omniscience  and  the  Devil  the 
Father  of  Lies.  Moreover,  no  one  knows  the 
limitations  for  our  knowing  truth  as  he  who 
knows  truth  the  most  clearly.  Further,  let 
me  say,  in  the  formation  of  personality,  take 
your  station  by  the  side  of  duty.  For  its  own 
sake,  for  the  sake  of  results,  do  what  you 
ought.  Let  the  majesty  of  "  I  ought  "  inspire 
without  oppressing.  As  says  the  noble  Amiel : 
"  Keep  close  to  duty.  Never  mind  the  future 
if  only  you  have  peace  of  conscience.  Be 
what  you  ought  to  be ;  the  rest  is  God's  affair. 
Supposing  that  there  were  no  good  and  holy 
God,  nothing  but  universal  being,  the  law  of 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       103 

the  all,  duty  would  still  be  the  key  of  the 
enigma,  the  pole-star  of  a  wandering  human- 
ity." Duty  considered,  duty  willed,  duty 
done,  will  make  one  Godlike.  Yet  there  is 
another  attitude,  as  important  as  the  attitude 
of  truth  and  of  duty,  for  the  development  of 
great  personality.  It  is  the  attitude  described 
in  the  word  "  love/'  Be  a  great  lover,  be  a 
great  lover!  If  you  will,  look  out  upon  hu- 
manity as  a  ship  sailing  from  the  harbor  on  a 
summer's  morning,  mirth  abounding,  music 
filling  the  air,  yet  love  humanity  and  be  happy 
in  its  happiness.  If  you  will,  look  out  upon 
humanity  as  a  ship  whose  crew  are  absorbed 
in  their  purpose,  be  that  purpose  a  quest  of 
any  form  of  power  or  of  pleasure,  yet  love  it. 
If  you  will,  look  out  upon  humanity  as  a  ship 
whose  crew  are  drunken  men — drunken  in  and 
because  of  peril — yet  love  it,  rescue  it,  if  you 
can.  If  you  will,  look  out  upon  humanity 
as  a  ship  there  on  the  lake,  beating  itself 
against  the  crags  and  tearing  itself  to  pieces 
in  the  waves — yet  love  it,  love  it,  save  it,  love 
it!  Never,  never,  never,  stand  by  the  sands 
cursing  the  happy,  despising  the  blessed, 
and  hardened  against  the  lost  Be  rich 
or  be  poor  yourself,  but  love  the  rich  and 
the  poor;  triumph  or  fail  yourself,  but 


104       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

love  those  who  succeed  and  those  who 
fail;  be  sad  or  be  glad  yourself,  but  love 
both  the  glad  and  the  sad.  Form  college 
settlements  or  do  not  form  college  settle- 
ments; be  a  missionary  or  do  not  be  a  mis- 
sionary, but  ever  and  everywhere  be  a  lover! 
The  occupying  of  such  a  point  of  truth  and 
duty  arid  love  will  make  you  a  personality, 
which  shall  be  like  a  cathedral,  strong  with 
the  strength  of  buttressed  principles,  beautiful 
with  the  memory  of  holy  deeds,  and,  seen 
from  afar,  as  the  symbol  of  the  presence  of 
God. 

One  man  there  is  above  all  others  who  filled 
those  opportunities  of  looking  at  life  in  truth, 
duty,  and  with  love.  His  life  also  illustrates 
much  else  than  I  have  been  trying  to  say. 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  supreme  personality!  He 
is  the  Son  of  Man.  Some  have  called  Him  a 
teacher,  but  more  majestic  than  His  teachings; 
some  have  called  Him  a  Miracle- Worker,  but 
more  wonderful  than  His  miracles;  some  have 
called  Him  a  poet,  but  more  inspiring  than  His 
poetry,  was  His  personality.  He  spoke  the 
truth;  He  said:  "  I  am  the  Truth."  He  spoke 
of  life;  He  called  Himself  Life;  His  great  dis- 
ciple declared  that  His  life  was  Light.  His 
commandment  was  "  Love " ;  and  He  was 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        105 

Himself  its  supreme  embodiment.  He  spoke 
of  law,  and  His  declaration  was  that  He  was 
the  Law's  fulfillment.  The  authority  for  His 
work  was  "  Verily,  verily,  I  say  " ;  His  assur- 
ance of  safety  was  "  It  is  I " ;  His  ground  of 
hope  for  the  lost  man  was,  "  To-day  shalt 
thou  be  with  Me";  His  first  command  and 
His  last  was,  "  Follow  Me." 

In  this  growth  of  personality  you  are  to 
learn  that  centurial  virtue — patience.  You 
can  build  a  house  out  of  stone  in  a  summer, 
but  to  make  the  stone  endless  centuries  are 
needed.  Learn  not  simply  to  labor,  learn  also 
to  wait.  Make  your  own  the  words  of  the 
poet  who  died  in  Cleveland  less  than  ten  years 
ago: 

"Haste!    Haste!    O   laggard,  leave    thy    drowsy 

dreams  ! 
Cram  all  thy  brain  with  knowledge  ;  clutch  and 

cram  ! 

The  earth  is  wide,  the  universe  is  vast — 
Thou  hast  infinity  to  learn — O  haste  ! 

"  Haste  not,  haste  not,  my  soul.     Infinity? 
Thou  hast  eternity  to  learn  it  in. 
Thy  boundless  lesson  through  the  endless  years 
Hath  boundless  leisure.     Run  not  like  a  slave — 
Sit  like  a  king,  and  see  the  ranks  of  worlds 
Wheel  in  their  cycles  onward  to  thy  feet." 


106        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

Members  of  the  graduating  classes : 
Your  college  course  is  ended.  The  last 
lecture  is  heard,  the  last  book  is  read.  The 
lectures  and  the  books  seem  to  play  a  con- 
spicuous part  in  the  college  course,  but  a 
part  yet  more  conspicuous  is  personality.  For 
the  lecture  and  the  book  are  simply  designed 
to  develop  the  student  into  the  noblest  and 
strongest  and  highest  character.  Behind  book 
and  lecture  is  the  teacher.  For  the  book,  the 
lecture,  the  library,  the  laboratory,  the  college 
cares  not  except  as  a  means  of  enriching  the 
personality  of  the  student.  For  these  privi- 
leges of  blessing  and  of  being  blessed  in  these 
happy  years,  through  our  common  personali- 
ties, we  all  now  rejoice  together.  The  college 
now  seems  to  take  upon  itself  a  personality, 
fine  and  gracious  and  noble.  Upon  you  she 
lifts  her  hands  in  blessing.  She  would,  as 
she  blesses  you,  say,  with  a  change  of  phrase, 
as  said  Hector  of  his  sons :  "  O  God,  grant 
that  these,  my  children,  may  do  good  and  bear 
noble  rule.  May  their  mother  be  glad  at 
heart."  The  college  would  also  make  as  her 
own  benediction  the  blessing  of  the  Hebrew 
saint  and  say  to  you:  "The  Lord  bless  you 
and  keep  you;  the  Lord  make  His  face  to  shine 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       107 

upon  you,  and  be  gracious  unto  you ;  the  Lord 
lift  up  His  countenance  upon  you,  and  give 
you  peace."  These  blessings  shall  be  yours  as 
you  heed  the  command  of  the  Christ :  "  Fol- 
low Me." 


108       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 


VIII 

MAN'S  OWNERSHIP  UNIVERSAL  AND 
CONDITIONAL 

"All  are  yours,  and  ye  are  Christ's  and  Christ 
is  God's." — i  Cor.  iii.  22,  23, 

Ware  passing  out  of  the  age  of  re- 
cession. We  are  passing  into  the 
age  of  indulgence.  The  Puritan 
lives  rather  in  memory  than  in  activity. 
The  negative  command :  "  Thou  shalt  not " 
has  become  less  common  than  the  per- 
missive command:  "Thou  mayst."  Before 
the  great  opportunity  which  we  call  Life  our 
fathers  stood  and  each  asked  "  What  is  my 
duty?"  Before  the  same  great  opportunity 
we,  their  sons,  stand,  and  ask :  "  What  are 
our  rights?"  The  monastic  condition  which 
glorified  abstinence,  abasement,  limitation, 
which  was  inclined  to  identify  piety  and  pov- 
erty, which  measures  sanctities  by  crucifix- 
ions, has  given  place  to  a  condition  in  which 
largeness,  fullness,  enrichment,  represent  the 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       109 

supreme  purposes  and  the  commanding  meth- 
ods. 

To  the  making  of  this  great  change  many 
elements  have  contributed.  The  swinging  of 
the  pendulum,  human  and  personal,  has  had 
influence :  clearer  understanding  of  the  nature 
of  man  has  promoted  the  movement.  But  in 
particular  the  greatest  contribution  has  been 
made  by  the  increasing  wealth  which  man  has 
made.  To  the  savage  nature  i$  a  foe,  cruel, 
fickle,  mysterious ;  in  civilization  nature  is 
man's  minister.  A  lump  of  coal  has  opened 
more  treasures  than  ever  the  Indies  possessed. 
This  being  that  we  call  the  World  has  al- 
lowed humanity  to  become  richer  than  once 
was  dreamed. 

The  words,  therefore,  which  Paul  wrote  to 
the  Corinthians  become  significant  to  us  in 
this  century  of  the  new  world.  "All  are 
yours : "  you  are  owners  universal  and  ab- 
solute. All  things  that  move  in  space  and  in 
time,  all  things  that  you  have  made  and  all 
things  that  God  has  made,  belong  to  you: 
"  All  are  yours."  In  this  fact  one  seems  to 
find  support  for  the  modern  principle  and 
method  of  indulgence.  The  words  appear  to 
be  a  declaration  that  abstinence  is  wrong, 
and  abundance  is  right.  But  at  once  large 


110       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

questions  present  themselves.  What  are  the 
elements  of  this  ownership,  its  conditions,  its 
limitations?  Is  this  ownership  right?  What 
duties  does  it  involve?  To  what  results  does 
it  lead? 

These  questions  all  may  be  summed  up  in 
the  proposition :  "  Man's  ownership  is  Uni- 
versal and  also  Conditional."  This  proposi- 
tition,  therefore,  represents  our  subject. 

Is  it  too  much  to  say  that  there  is  strong 
reason  for  believing  that  God  has  made  man 
the  crown  of  the  whole  creative  process?  Has 
He  not  put  man  into  a  beautiful  world  and 
told  him  to  dress  and  keep  it?  Are  not  the 
speeches  of  the  day  messages  for  his  hearing, 
and  the  showing  forth  of  the  knowledges  of 
the  night  truth  for  his  learning?  If  man  can- 
not bind  the  sweet  influences  of  the  Pleiades, 
he  can  at  least  receive  and  transmute  these 
influences  into  elements  of  his  own  character; 
if  he  cannot  loose  the  bands  of  Orion  he  can 
at  least  discover  the  times  and  seasons  that 
belong  to  the  stars  and  planets;  if  he  is  not 
able  to  govern  the  sun  and  the  moon,  he  is 
able  at  least  to  co-operate  with  both  the  ce- 
lestial and  terrestrial  forces  in  the  securing  of 
his  highest  purposes.  Without  any  undue  as- 
sertions as  to  the  central  place  which  man 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        111 

fills  in  the  whole  Universe,  one  may  in  the 
language  of  feeling,  if  not  in  the  language  of 
intellect,  affirm  that  man  is  master  and 
owner.  For  him  before  he  was  the  centuries 
toiled.  For  him  in  each  passing  century 
come  forth  a  larger  life,  a  greater  opportunity, 
a  richer  reward.  For  him  the  whole  creation 
seems  to  groan  and  travail  in  pain  unto  the 
present.  He  is  the  splendid  outcome  of  all 
the  creative  process.  From  the  time  when  he 
gave  names  to  the  animals  in  the  Garden  of 
Eden  to  the  present  time  when  he  discovers 
and  gives  name  to  the  forces  of  Nature  and 
causes  them  to  pass  before  him,  he  has  been 
the  master  of  increasing  power,  of  an  enlarg- 
ing realm. 

One  and  only  one  condition  is  attached  to 
this  mastery  and  ownership.  It  is  a  mastery 
and  ownership  under  a  superior.  It  is  a  mas- 
tery and  ownership  having  an  ownership  of 
man  in  and  by  the  Christ.  "All  are  yours, 
and  ye  are  Christ's  and  Christ  is  God's."  All 
are  yours,  if  ye  are  the  Christ's;  and  all  are 
yours  as  ye  are  the  Christ's.  It  is  as  a  father 
going  with  his  son  into  a  beautiful  park,  say- 
ing to  his  son:  "  All  this  is  yours,  to  use,  to 
enjoy,  to  keep,  so  long  as  you  are  mine.  Do 
with  it  all  as  you  see  fit.  I  only  ask  that  you 


112       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

shall  love  me  more  than  you  love  these  things, 
and  that  never  will  you  use  them  in  any  way 
which  you  judge  I  should  not  like."  It  is  thus 
that  God  seems  to  give  everything  to  man. 
"  This  world  is  yours/'  he  says,  "  its  shining 
sun,  its  manifold  forces  of  air,  its  glories  and 
wealths,  its  laws  and  its  powers,  all  are  yours 
to  do  with  as  you  see  fit.  I  have  only  to  ask 
that  never  will  you  forget  you  belong  to  me, 
that  me  will  you  love  more  than  you  love 
them,  that  you  will  acknowledge  my  will  as 
right,  and  recognize  that  in  carrying  out  my 
wishes  your  ownership  is  to  become  more 
complete/'  Man  owns  all  so  far  as  man  knows 
that  God  is  his  owner.  Just  so  far  as  man  be- 
longs to  Christ,  just  so  far  as  Christ  belongs 
to  God,  just  so  far  all  things  belong  to  man 
himself.  The  Christ  has  all,  the  Christ  has 
you ;  so  far  as  you  belong  to  Christ,  Christ  be- 
longs to  you;  so  far  as  Christ  belongs  to  you, 
so  far  all  things  that  belong  to  Christ  belong 
to  you.  Your  ownership  is  absolute  and  uni- 
versal. This  ownership  is  absolute  and  uni- 
versal under  the  simple  condition  of  man's 
ownership  in  the  Christ  and  of  Christ's 
ownership  in  and  mastery  over  man  him- 
self. 
This  principle  of  ownership  becomes  more 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       113 

clear,  I  think,  when  applied  to  one  or  two 
of  the  fields  in  which  man  works. 

One  of  the  fields  in  which  man  is  always 
working  and  which  has  special  significance 
on  such  an  occasion  as  this  is  the  field  of 
scholarship.  For  scholarship  represents  the 
domain  of  the  college.  Out  of  scholarship 
springs  the  college,  and  the  college  in  turn 
ministers  to  scholarship.  It  is  the  field  in 
which  absolute  ownership  and  absolute  free- 
dom should  prevail.  There  is  no  field  in  which 
limitations  of  any  kind  are  more  unreason- 
able. I  can  conceive  of  no  command  so  un- 
worthy for  a  large  man  to  give  or  so  hard  for  a 
large  man  to  receive  as  the  command  not  to 
search.  Truth,  truth,  truth,  should  mean  to 
man  what  the  heart  of  Bruce  flung  into  the 
midst  of  the  foe  meant  to  his  soldiers.  All 
the  world  is  spread  out  before  the  in- 
quisitive mind.  The  infinite  spaces  of  the 
universe  and  the  infinitesimal  elements  of  life 
represent  objects  of  interrogation.  Man,  too, 
studies  himself.  He  is  a  self-study.  As  the 
great  scientist  said  to  his  student :  "  Look  at 
your  fish;  look  at  your  fish,"  so  ever  says  the 
Omniscient  One  to  the  scholar:  "  Know, 
know,  know."  Do  you  recall  that  little  poem 
of  Schiller  in  which  the  youth  was  eager  to 


114       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

lift  the  veil  which  hid  the  image?  The  guard- 
ian tried  to  persuade  him  not  to  lift  it,  but 
eagerly  he  pleaded.  At  last  he  raised  the  cov- 
ering; he  looked;  he  saw.  What  he  saw  the 
poet  intimates  not,  but  the  vision  made  him 
a  different  man.  It  is  not  thus  in  God's  great 
school.  God  hangs  no  veil  over  the  face  of 
knowledge.  Man's  own  eagerness  to  know  is 
met  by  God's  eagerness  that  man  shall  know. 
The  infinite  domain  of  omniscience  is  the  do- 
main also  of  the  all-learning  spirit.  Man  is 
to  know  all.  He  is  the  master  in  the  field  of 
scholarship. 

I  am  glad  to  say  that  this  ownership  and 
this  freedom  of  scholarship  should  be  applied 
to  the  book  which  we  call  the  Book  of  books, 
the  Bible.  Idols  that  men  have  long  wor- 
shiped demand  reverence.  Beliefs  of  man, 
long  entertained,  merit  respect.  Moods  and 
atmospheres  in  which  men  have  long  moved 
should  be  esteemed  in  fitting  regard.  But 
moods  should  demand  no  regard,  beliefs 
should  merit  no  respect,  idols  should  com- 
mand no  reverence  so  complete  as  the  regard, 
the  respect,  and  the  reverence  which  truth 
demands.  Therefore,  the  Bible,  its  language, 
its  literature,  its  principles  and  facts,  its  de- 
clarations and  its  instructions,  should  be  ob- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        115 

jects  of  the  most  intense,  constant,  prolonged 
examination.  We  can,  furthermore,  believe 
that  the  author  and  inspirer  of  the  Book  of 
books  demands  that  man  shall  study  it.  It 
is  in  my  judgment  the  height  of  folly  in  both 
religion  and  morals  for  any  man  to  oppose 
the  most  thorough  examination  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. If  any  book  is  truer  than  the  Bible, 
let  us,  as  discoverers  and  apostles  of  the  truth, 
let  us  have  it,  the  truer  Bible.  If  any  book  is 
more  worthy  to  be  loved  than  the  book  which 
begins  with  Genesis  and  ends  with  Revela- 
tion, I  am  sure  that  the  very  teachings  of  the 
so-called  Bible  demand  that  we  shall  possess 
and  love  it.  It  is  not  faith  to  accept  without 
examination  what  we  ought  to  examine,  it  is 
credulity.  It  is  not  piety  to  worship  God 
without  asking  what  God  is,  it  is  worse  than 
pietism.  It  is  not  the  Christian  religion  to 
shut  the  eye  and  stop  the  ear,  it  is  mysticism 
or  heathenism,  or  both.  But  the  man  who  en- 
ters into  this  great  field  of  knowledge  of  the 
Scripture  is  to  enter  it  possessed  with  Christ's 
spirit.  He  is  to  enter  it,  knowing  that  he  be- 
longs to  Christ  who  called  himself  the  Truth. 
To  change  the  epithet  applied  to  Spinoza,  I 
may  say  that  the  man  free  to  investigate,  ab- 
solute in  ownership,  is  to  be  Christ-filled.  I 


116       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

have  no  fear  of  heresy  nor  of  false  doctrine, 
nor  have  I  any  dread  of  the  results  of  deal- 
ing with  the  Truth  so  long  as  man  follows 
Him  who  is  at  once  the  Life  of  the  world  and 
the  Light  of  the  world.  Absolute  truth,  in 
scholarship,  in  knowledge  is  to  be  the  rule  in 
college,  and  to  be  the  law  of  all  being.  Ab- 
solute freedom  in  truth,  in  scholarship,  in 
knowledge,  absolute  freedom  in  the  college, 
is  to  be  the  law  of  being  under  the  great  law 
of  obedience  to  Christ.  So  long  as  one  be- 
longs to  Christ  and  so  long  as  Christ  belongs 
to  one,  so  long  can  one  be  free  to  study  the 
infinite  life  of  the  world  and  of  God.  So  long 
as  man  belongs  to  man  and  Christ  belongs  to 
man,  so  long  can  he  feel  free  to  subject  his 
Book  of  books  to  examinations  of  the  might- 
iest severity.  He  can  be  assured  that  the  re- 
sults will  be  in  accordance  with  the  very  truth 
of  Omniscience. 

The  same  principles  apply  to  the  study 
of  nature  as  well  as  to  the  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures. Does  it  not  now  seem  simply  and  per- 
fectly absurd  that  the  time  ever  was  when  the 
Church  commanded  that  man  should  not  in- 
vestigate the  truth  of  the  natural  world?  It  is 
difficult  to  trust  one's  eyes  and  reason  when 
one  reads  certain  prohibitions  made  by  the 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       117 

Church  against  the  study  of  nature.  For  if 
there  be  any  error  in  our  Christianity,  we,  as 
Christians,  ought  to  be  more  eager  than  any- 
one else  to  find  that  error  and  that  error  to 
remove.  We  have  heard  a  great  deal  about 
the  reconciliation  of  science  and  religion; 
rather  we  should  change  the  phrase  into  the 
reconciliation  of  certain  notions  in  science  and 
certain  notions  in  religion  with  each  other. 
These  notions  have  come  and  may  come  into 
conflict;  but  the  reason  is  because  certain  no- 
tions were  false  and  were  opposed  to  other 
false  notions,  or  that  certain  notions  were  false, 
and  were  opposed  to  other  notions  that  were 
true.  The  antagonism  between  science  and 
religion  is  no  more  antagonistic  than  the  an- 
tagonism between  heat  and  light.  Science  and 
religion  are  unlike,  but  they  are  harmonious. 
The  college  should  be  most  eager  to  make 
manifest  their  harmonies.  Trust  the  scholar; 
free  him  from  limitations;  give  him  a  large 
field,  provide  him  with  every  tool,  leave  him 
to  think  with  himself,  before  the  object  of  his 
study  and  with  his  God.  Be  thankful  that,  in 
the  new  world  where  men  seek  for  gold, 
are  men  who  are  unwilling  to  seek  for  gold, 
and  who  are  eager  to  discover  and  to  tell  the 
laws  by  which  God  made  that  gold.  Give 


118        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

them  gold  that  they  may  get  that  which  is 
far  more  golden  than  gold.  Make  money  for 
the  wise  man,  O  you,  who  have  time  and  stuff 
to  make  it,  that  he  may  transmute  your  money 
into  interpretations  of  the  very  thoughts  of 
God.  Trust  absolutely  the  man  whose  busi- 
ness it  is  to  discover  and  examine  the  truth. 
Commend  him  to  his  God;  command  him 
never.  Trust  him  as  he  is  loyal  to  his  God. 
Pray  God  that  the  time  may  never  come  again 
when  the  scholar  can  be  condemned  for  trying 
to  find  out  what  kind  of  a  world  this  is  which 
God  has  made  and  in  which  we,  His  children, 
live. 

This  great  principle  of  ownership,  this  great 
law  of  freedom,  this  great  law  of  indulgence, 
become  yet  more  evident  when  applied  to  the 
entire  field  of  human  work.  Is  there  any  work 
which  any  man  or  woman  should  not  do?  Is 
there  any  form  of  work  into  which  any  man  or 
woman  cannot  enter  with  perfect  fitness?  Is 
there  property  of  any  kind  which  a  self-re- 
specting person  should  not  own?  When  I  hear 
one  say:  "I  cannot  enter  the  profession  of 
the  law  because  I  should  have  to  defend  that 
which  I  know  to  be  false ; "  when  I  hear  one 
say:  "  I  cannot  be  a  minister  because  I  should 
have  to  pretend  to  believe  what  I  cannot  be- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        119 

lieve; "  when  I  hear  one  say:  "  I  cannot  be  a 
doctor,  for  I  should  have  to  act  a  part;  "  when 
I  hear  one  say:  "  I  cannot  be  a  merchant,  for  I 
should  have  to  do  as  the  trade  does;"  when  I 
hear  one  say:  "  I  cannot  go  into  society,  for  it 
is  so  false  and  so  selfish;  "  I  am  filled  with  pity 
at  once  for  the  man  or  the  woman  and  for  the 
profession,  the  trade,  or  society,  but  I  am  also 
filled  with  greater  pity  for  the  man  than  I  am 
for  the  condition.  For  the  mood  of  the  man 
or  the  woman  proves  that,  though  he  has  in- 
sight, he  lacks  strength.  Although  he  has 
the  eye  to  see  the  peril,  he  has  not  the  arm  to 
strike  the  peril  down.  Let  the  world  know 
that  the  law  is  a  great  calling  in  the  application 
of  the  results  of  human  struggles  to  present 
problems.  Let  the  world  know  that  the  min- 
istry is  a  great  calling  in  the  teaching  of  men 
what  life  is,  and  in  the  helping  to  make  their 
own  life  and  the  life  of  all  good  and  true.  Let 
the  world  know  that  medicine  is  a  great  call- 
ing in  the  giving  to  men  of  physical  salvation. 
Let  the  world  know  that  commerce  is  a  great 
calling  in  the  continuing  of  the  work  of  the 
first  man  in  dressing  and  keeping  the  earth. 
Let  all  men  know  that  society  is  a  great  move- 
ment and  a  great  condition  composed  of  all 
the  diverse  and  manifold  forces  of  the  world. 


120       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

Let  all  of  us  know  that  the  great  associations 
of  the  people  cannot  be  false.  If  they  were 
false  they  would  cease.  Humanity  cannot  live 
on  lies.  Truth  is  man's  food.  Let  each  man 
feel  that  to  enter  into  any  one  of  these  great 
works  demands  his  strongest  strength,  his 
keenest  insight,  his  highest  self.  If  a  man 
enter  into  any  one  of  these  great  callings  with 
the  thought  that  concealment  or  wrong  is 
necessary  to  triumph,  let  him  know  that  he 
sides  with  the  devil  and  with  those  who  vote 
that  this  is  the  devil's  world.  No,  no,  no; 
uprightness,  honor,  justice,  integrity,  virtue, 
and  the  virtues,  character,  are  the  brain  and 
the  heart  of  the  whole  life  whenever  and  wher- 
ever lived. 

A  lie  means  in  the  world  of  man  what  a 
star  out  of  place  means  in  the  world  of 
nature,  disorder,  disintegration,  destruction. 
Therefore  I  say  to  you,  men  and  women,  select 
any  calling,  do  any  work,  enter  into  any  as- 
sociation, such  as  the  learners  of  the  Christ, 
can  select,  can  do,  can  enter  into.  Where  the 
Christ  sits  there  is  the  throne,  where  the 
Christ  is  there  you  may  go,  what  the  Christ 
approves  you  can  do,  and  the  methods  which 
the  Christ  commends  you  can  adopt.  Into  all 
this  world,  go;  into  any  part  of  this  world, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        121 

go;  into  any  condition  of  this  world,  go. 
Know  that  your  work  may  be  in  all  parts, 
under  any  condition.  Know  that  you  are  the 
masters  so  long  as  you  belong  to  Christ  and 
Christ  belongs  to  you.  "  All  are  yours,  and 
ye  are  Christ's  and  Christ  is  God's." 

But  you  at  once  ask  how  can  I  know  that 
any  particular  kind  of  service  is  what  the 
Christ  does  approve?  May  I  not  mistake? 
May  I  not  interpret  my  own  wishes  as  being 
his  will?  Of  course  you  may  mistake,  you 
may  misinterpret.  It  is  a  part  of  human  life 
to  err,  not  only  in  will,  but  in  intellect.  But 
you  can  have  no  guide  more  true  than  your- 
self; only  provided  that  self  be  your  best  self, 
yourself  instructed,  calm  in  mood,  strong  to 
do  the  right,  yourself  reflective,  reverential, 
yourself  pure,  loving,  loyal — that  is  the  self 
which  I  would  and  do  trust.  Such  a  self 
transmutes  the  passions  of  the  body  into  self- 
acting  choices.  Such  a  self  takes  up  all  knowl- 
edge and  makes  it  over  into  wisdom.  Such 
a  self  joins  together  the  promptings  of  the 
Holy  Spirit  and  the  wishes  of  its  own  heart, 
and  welds  them  all  together  into  a  mighty  will. 
The  law  of  such  a  self  is  the  law  of  God,  per- 
fect, converting  the  soul.  Such  a  self  receives 
the  testimony  of  the  Lord,  and  that  testimony 


122       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

makes  that  soul  wise.  To  such  a  soul  the 
statutes  of  the  Lord  are  right,  rejoicing  the 
heart.  To  such  a  soul  the  commandments 
of  the  Lord  are  pure  and  the  eyes  are  en- 
lightened. To  such  a  self  the  judgments  of 
the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous  altogether, 
and  such  a  soul  finds  in  the  keeping  of  them 
great  reward.  Such  a  soul  becomes  not  only 
the  voice  of  God,  but  God  himself,  so  far  as 
God  can  incarnate  himself  in  man  whom  he 
has  made  in  his  own  image.  Such  a  soul  to  a 
degree  repeats  the  miracle  of  Bethlehem.  Over 
the  coming  of  such  a  soul  into  the  world 
the  morning  stars  sing  together.  The  prog- 
ress of  such  a  soul  is  a  progress  in  the  happy 
life  of  the  sons  of  men.  Trust  yourself.  The 
guidance  of  your  best  self  is  the  guidance 
of  God.  To  give  you  such  a  self,  to  promote 
such  a  self-mastery  and  such  a  mastery  of  all 
things,  is  the  supreme  purpose  of  college  life. 
Therefore,  at  the  close  of  this  life  the  college 
stands  ready  to  give  to  you  her  message  of 
confidence.  The  college  believes  in  you;  the 
college  asks  you  to  believe  in  yourself.  Such 
a  self  leads  to  self-trust  without  arrogance, 
such  a  self  gives  self-guidance  without  will- 
fulness. Such  guidance  is  divine  guidance, 
for  the  man  has  become  Christ's  son  as  Christ 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       123 

is  God's.     You  loving  God,  God  working  in 
you,  shall  not  err. 

To  you,  members  of  the  classes  about 
to  graduate,  I  repeat  the  words  of  the  Apos- 
tle: "All  are  yours."  To-night  the  words 
seem  to  you  true.  All  are  yours,  to  work  for, 
to  struggle  after,  to  receive,  to  enjoy,  to  profit 
by,  to  transmute,  to  transmit.  But  of  an  early 
to-morrow  you  will  find  yourself  saying  to 
yourself:  "All  are  not  mine.  Nothing  is 
mine.  Even  a  place  to  work  is  not  mine." 
From  the  universal  ownership  of  to-night  will 
come  the  thought  of  the  absolute  poverty  of 
to-morrow.  Let  me  assure  you  that  though 
speaking  to-night  I  am  not  speaking  for  to- 
night merely.  I  am  speaking  for  your  whole 
life  and  being.  Life  will  itself  bear  to  you  all 
things  that  you  need  or  wish  as  your  life  is 
hidden  in  Christ  and  in  God.  If  you  find, 
and  you  will  find,  that  you  cannot  have  what 
you  wish,  then  do  you  wish  for  what  you  can 
have.  If  you  cannot  enhance  the  value  of 
life's  fraction  by  increasing  the  numerator  of 
having,  then  enhance  it  by  diminishing  the  de- 
nominator of  wishing.  Keep  yourself  in  God, 
and  God  will  keep  himself  in  you.  All  values 
are  to  be  transmuted  into  highest  worths.  If 
you  have  God  and  if  God  have  you,  you  have 


124       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

all.  The  longer  life  is  lived  the  less  precious 
become  the  mere  things  of  living  and  the 
more  precious  becomes  life  itself.  Man's  life 
does  not  consist  in  the  abundance  of  things 
which  one  hath.  When  at  last  you  give  up 
life  itself  to  Him  who  gave  it  to  you,  and 
when  you  and  God  are  together  and  alone, 
then  will  become  more  true  than  ever  before 
the  thought  of  this  night — "  All  are  yours/' 
For  God  will  at  that  time  have  become  to  you 
all  in  all.  God  you  will  have  in  all  the  fullness 
of  your  being  as  he  has  you  now  in  the  fullness 
of  his  love.  Toward  that  glad  day  of  revela- 
tion and  of  strength  you  are  to  go,  having 
more  and  more  because  you  are  becoming 
more  and  more.  The  larger  becoming  is  the 
prophecy  of  a  richer  having,  and  a  richer  hav- 
ing is  a  promise  of  a  finer  becoming.  Until 
dawns  that  day,  which  is  a  commencement, 
that  is  also  a  conclusion,  live  your  life,  able  to 
wait,  strong  to  do,  patient  to  bear,  eager  to 
know,  being  true  to  truth  and  faithful  to  God. 
Know  that  all  are  yours  so  long  as  you  are 
Christ's  and  Christ  is  God's. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        125 


IX 

HIGHEST   POWERS   FOR  HIGHEST 
PURPOSES 

And  when  the  tempter  came  to  him,  he  said,  if 
thou  be  the  Son  of  God,  command  that  these  stones 
be  made  bread.  But  he  answered  and  said,  It  is 
written,  Man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of 
God.— St.  Matthew  iv.  3,  4, 

AGAIN  we  stand  at  the  beginning  of 
/"^  our  annual  academic  ceremonial.  Again 
^  we  come  to  the  close  of  the  academic 
year  of  men  and  of  women  and  to  the  com- 
mencement of  what  is  called  for  them  the 
larger  life.  The  hour  is  one  both  of  grati- 
tude and  of  hopefulness.  To  interpret  the  sig- 
nificance of  the  occasion  I  go  to  one  of  the 
first  experiences  in  the  public  ministry  of 
Jesus  Christ:  to  His  temptation.  And  I  turn 
to  the  first  of  the  three  temptations  which  He 
met.  The  messenger  of  the  Evil  One  comes 
to  Christ  and  asks  that  He  make  stones  into 
bread.  The  command  is  reasonable;  the 
Christ  is  soon  to  turn  water  into  wine  and  to 


126       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

multiply  the  loaves.  The  answer  is  that  man 
shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  on  God. 
Bread  is  good,  but  not  the  best.  Man  shall 
not  use  his  power  for  purposes  lower  than 
the  highest  or  in  ways  less  worthy  than  the 
worthiest.  To-night  you  hear  the  command 
spoken  by  the  voice  of  conscience  and  by  the 
voice  of  experience :  "  Use  your  powers."  Let 
me  speak  a  command,  and  it  is  one  of  the  last 
messages  that  it  can  be  my  privilege  to  offer: 
"  Use  your  powers  to  win  the  highest  aims. 
Use  your  powers  to  do  the  best  work."  There- 
fore, the  thought  of  my  sermon  is  that  you 
should  use  your  highest  powers  to  secure  the 
highest  purposes.  The  proposition  is  so  true 
that  it  becomes  a  truism.  You  can  and  there- 
fore you  ought.  You  feel  you  can,  and  there- 
fore you  ought. 

The  use  of  highest  powers  for  highest  pur- 
poses is  the  best  for  the  man  using  these 
forces.  To  use  highest  powers  for  less  than 
highest  purposes  results  in  the  deterioration, 
the  disintegration,  the  destruction  of  these 
powers.  Such  use  is  putting  Samson  to  grind 
the  mills  of  the  Philistines.  To  use  weakest 
powers  for  highest  purposes  results  in  ineffi- 
ciency and  loss.  It  is  using  the  child's  bow 
and  arrow  to  beat  down  the  stone  wall.  The 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        127 

bow  is  strained,  the  arrow  broken.  The  man 
who  gives  his  best  self  to  the  best  work  finds 
himself  enlarged,  ennobled,  enriched.  The 
work  into  which  he  puts  his  best  self  becomes 
a  sacred  minister  unto  himself.  If  he  objecti- 
fies his  best  self  in  the  work,  the  work  itself 
comes  back  to  strengthen  him,  the  worker. 
Those  who  knew  Dr.  Raymond,  the  first  presi- 
dent of  Vassar  College,  recall  with  what  pru- 
dence he  planned,  with  what  energy  he  served, 
and  with  what  mingled  doubt  and  hope  he 
looked  forward  to  the  first  days  and  years  of 
that  college.  It  is  also  remembered  that  in 
those  first  years  he  grew  with  the  college.  He 
helped  to  make  the  college,  putting  his  wis- 
dom and  energy  into  its  administration,  and 
then  the  college  seemed  to  turn  to  him,  and  to 
help  to  make  him,  adding  to  his  worth,  en- 
larging his  power  and  beneficence.  To  give 
best  self  unto  best  service  is  best  for  the  one 
serving. 

To  give  this  best  self  unto  the  securing  of 
highest  ends  is  also  best  for  humanity.  The 
method  represents  the  progressive  method. 
Civilization  is  the  best  men  ruling.  The  ab- 
sence of  civilization  is  the  best  men  not  giving 
their  best  selves  unto  the  best  things.  What 
contributed  to  the  prevalence  of  those  ideas 


328       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

which  we  describe  by  the  phrase  "  New  Eng- 
land "  in  American  life?  Those  who  came  to 
the  shores  of  Massachusetts  Bay  in  the  first 
century  were  only  a  few  thousands  of  people, 
and  yet  for  almost  three  hundred  years  the 
followers  of  Bradford  and  Carver  and  Stand- 
ish,  of  Higginson  and  Endicott  and  Winthrop 
have  been  moving  across  the  continent  build- 
ing churches,  establishing  colleges,  advancing 
civilized  society.  The  reason  lies  very  largely 
in  that  these  men  gave  their  best  selves  unto 
the  best  of  humanity.  Wisdom,  courage,  faith, 
industry,  strength,  honesty,  justice,  learning, 
they  made  the  virtues  on  which  move  the 
highest  interests  of  this  great  country.  The 
decline  of  civilization  is  marked  by  the  re- 
tirement of  the  best  men  from  human  relation- 
ships or  by  the  debasing  of  noble  men  into 
ignoble.  The  progress  of  any  society  is 
marked  by  the  presence  of  its  noblest  men  and 
women  in  all  relations.  If  America  is  to  be 
New  England,  if  America  is  to  be  civilized, 
if  America  is  to  become  more  civilized,  the 
best  men  must  give  themselves  to  the  holiest 
interests  of  America.  It  therefore  is  inevit- 
able that  for  the  best  interests  of  the  individual 
and  of  society,  every  man  should  use  the  high- 
est powers  in  securing  the  best  results. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       129 

To  this  use  of  highest  powers  the  college 
graduate  makes  a  significant  contribution. 
And  what  is  the  significance  of  this  contribu- 
tion? What  does  the  college  man  or  woman 
offer  to  humanity  which  the  man  or  woman 
not  college  bred  does  not  offer?  What  is  this 
significant  element?  Matthew  Arnold  was 
fond  of  saying  that  the  powers  which  con- 
tribute to  build  up  civilization  are  the  power 
of  conduct,  the  power  of  intellect  and  knowl- 
edge, the  power  of  beauty,  and  the  power  of 
social  life  and  manners.  Does  the  college 
graduate  embody  conduct  finer,  an  intellect 
richer,  a  beauty  nobler,  a  social  life  more  re- 
fined and  manners  more  gentle  than  other 
men  and  women?  The  master  of  Balliol  com- 
plained that  greater  academic  results  had  not 
been  obtained  from  the  undergraduates  of 
Christ  Church.  It  is  a  matter  of  common  re- 
gret that  the  intellectual  results  of  Oxford  and 
Cambridge  life  have  not  been  adequate  to  the 
great  power  and  prestige  of  those  ancient  and 
honorable  foundations.  You  may  say  or  you 
may  not  say  that  the  power  of  conduct  is 
greater,  the  power  of  intellect  and  knowledge 
larger,  the  power  of  beauty  more  entrancing, 
and  the  power  of  social  life  and  manners  more 
engaging,  as  embodied  in  the  college  gradu- 


130       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

ate;  but  whatever  answer  one  gives  to  these 
considerations,  one  result  at  least  should  be 
declared  and  manifested  as  a  comprehensive 
contribution  which  the  college  graduate 
should  make  to  human  affairs,  and  this  one 
comprehensive  contribution  which  the  college 
graduate  should  make  for  the  betterment  of 
humanity  is  the  element  which  I  shall  call 
judgment.  Wisdom  you  may  call  it,  if  you 
wish  to  define  wisdom  as  the  application 
of  knowledge  to  public  affairs.  Judgment, 
I  should  venture  to  prefer  to  call  this  ap- 
plication. By  judgment  I  mean  the  applica- 
tion of  the  trained  intellect  to  human  life.  It 
is  the  power  to  see,  to  appreciate,  and  to  use 
the  truth  in  improving  the  condition  of  man- 
kind. This  element  is,  in  my  thinking,  the 
great  contribution  made  by  the  college  gradu- 
ate to  human  life.  Judgment  embodies  large- 
ness, a  proper  estimate  of  values,  the  power 
to  see  units,  and  out  of  units  to  construct 
unities.  It  embraces  every  scientific  appli- 
cation of  observation  and  every  philosophi- 
cal application  of  inference.  It  is  a 
judgment  deliberate  and  deliberative,  sane, 
large,  as  remote  from  being  influenced 
by  the  idols  of  the  market  place,  of  the  forum 
and  of  the  voting  booth  as  it  is  remote  from 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        131 

the  smallness  of  dilettanteism.  It  works  with 
the  accuracy  of  instruments  of  precision.  It 
moves  in  inductions  that  are  no>  less  than 
transcendental.  It  unites  faith  and  rational- 
ism, making  faith  reasonable  and  rationalism 
ethical.  It  extracts  the  truth  of  optimism 
without  relieving  us  of  the  sense  of  responsi- 
bility, and  it  draws  out  the  truth  of  pessimism 
without  urging  on  to  the  pessimist's  fate.  It 
is  a  judgment  which  helps  one  to  see  the  prin- 
cipal as  principal  and  the  subordinate  as 
subordinate.  It  is  a  judgment  which  gives 
contentment  and  inspiration,  humility,  and 
the  sense  of  strength.  It  is  a  judgment 
which  results  in  adjustment,  making  one 
a  citizen  of  the  world  without  making 
one  less  a  patriot.  It  is  a  judgment, 
too,  which  means  self-understanding  and  the 
understanding  of  all.  It  is  a  judgment  pri- 
marily intellectual,  and  yet  it  is  not  simply  in- 
tellectual. It  is  a  judgment  in  which  the 
emotions  have  a  proper  play  and  place,  and 
yet  it  is  not  simply  emotional.  It  is  a  judg- 
ment resulting  in  action,  yet  it  is  something 
more  by  far  than  mere  volition.  It  is  a  judg- 
ment in  which  conscience  has  a  supreme  part, 
but  it  represents  more  than  a  dictate  of  con- 
science narrowly  interpreted.  Such  judgment 


132       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

a  college  graduate  above  other  members  of 
the  community  is  fitted  to  offer  and  to  use. 
Each  study  of  a  college  makes  an  offering  to 
its  enrichment.  Language  gives  to  it  dis- 
crimination, freedom,  and  amplitude;  science 
gives  to  it  the  sense  of  order  and  a  respect  for 
law;  philosophy  gives  to  it  self-confidence, 
breadth  of  vision,  toleration.  The  old  college 
trained  men  of  judgment.  Sometimes  we  ask 
the  difference  between  the  college  man  of  to- 
day and  the  college  man  of  fifty  years  ago. 
The  graduate  of  to-day  is  possessed  of  scholar- 
ship more  ample,  more  varied,  of  manners 
more  gracious,  but  it  is  an  open  question 
whether  the  old  college  did  not  train  men  in 
judgment  quite  as  efficiently  as  the  modern 
college.  It,  this  power  of  judgment,  is  more 
useful  than  the  appreciation  of  beauty.  It  is 
the  basis  of  social  life  and  of  good  manners. 
It  is  the  soul  of  conduct.  It  is  the  crown  of 
intellectual  manhood  and  womanhood.  It  is 
an  essential  element  in  indivdual  character. 
It  is  the  queen  in  and  of  civilized  society. 

American  life  offers  rich  and  unique  condi- 
tions for  the  use  of  this  supreme  power  of 
judgment.  For  this  American  life  is  a  life 
vast  in  its  material  relations.  Lay  out  a  map 
of  the  Roman  world  at  its  greatest  extent  upon 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       133 

the  map  of  the  United  States  and  the  modern 
nation  has  territory  lying  far  out  beyond  the 
ancient.  In  fact  the  territory  of  our  land  is 
twice  as  great  as  that  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
It  is  a  land  vast,  vast  in  its  material  resources. 
It  is  a  life  of  infinite  variety  in  its  origin, 
language,  religion,  education,  and  general 
conditions.  It  is  a  life  free  in  giving  room  for 
play  and  by-play  of  all  human  faculties,  func- 
tions, and  facilities.  It  is  a  life  united  in  love 
for  America.  It  is  a  life  new.  An  old  people 
coming  to  a  new  land  becomes  a  new  people. 
In  less  than  three  hundred  years  the  whole 
continent  has  been  peopled  and  civilized. 
Three  lives  of  not  extraordinary  length  would 
cover  our  entire  existence.  Other  great  na- 
tions have  lived  a  thousand  and  two  thousand 
years  on  the  soil  that  they  now  occupy.  This 
large  movement  of  population  has  occurred 
not  in  three  hundred  years,  but  in  less  than 
one  hundred.  It  is  covered  in  the  lifetime  of 
some  of  us.  We  are  a  new  people.  A  people 
thus  placed,  having  an  immense  territory,  pos- 
sessed of  vast  resources,  of  many  tongues,  of 
diverse  origins,  represents  a  new  and  most 
significant  condition.  Furthermore,  when  to 
these  more  material  elements  are  added  such 
personal  qualities  as  fearlessness,  good  nature, 


134       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

capacity  of  being  easily  led,  capacity  of  "getting 
on,"  excitability  of  the  emotional  nature, 
self-love  easily  becoming  boastfulness  and 
vanity,  and  a  too  high  regard  for  material 
prosperity,  one  has  an  idea  what  America 
is,  and  what  an  opportunity  it  presents  for  the 
application  of  the  superb  element  of  judgment. 
All  these  elements  constitute  a  condition 
out  of  which  should  be  created  a  humanity 
larger,  fairer,  finer,  more  divine  than  the  hu- 
man eye  has  ever  seen  or  the  human  heart  ap- 
preciated. This  condition  constitutes  a  de- 
mand. The  demand  is  not  that  America  shall 
rule  the  world,  Western  or  Eastern,  in  Pacific 
seas  or  Atlantic  Ocean,  by  having  the  greatest 
armies  or  navies  or  the  largest  number  of  rich 
men  or  the  biggest  flour  mills  or  the  longest 
railroads.  This  condition  constitutes  no  de- 
mand for  a  simply  great  material  civilization. 
Mightier  than  the  demand  that  provincialism 
shall  give  way  to  imperialism;  mightier  than 
the  demand  that  the  United  States  of  America 
shall  become  the  United  States  of  the  World, 
is  the  demand  that  America  shall  give  to  the 
world  and  give  to  humanity  the  best  men,  the 
highest,  finest  type  of  a  magnificent  and  glori- 
fied humanity.  This  condition  constitutes  a 
demand  that  in  America  humanity  shall 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       135 

come  to  its  finest  flower,  to  its  golden  harvest, 
to  its  heavenly  supremacy.  It  is  not  enough 
that  the  good  man  shall  rule.  As  the  bad  is 
the  enemy  of  the  good,  as  the  good  is  the 
enemy  of  the  better,  and  as  the  better  is  the 
enemy  of  the  best,  so  also  there  should  be  no 
contentment  with  America  simply  offering  to 
civilization  and  to  humanity  a  type  of  good- 
ness, but  the  demand  is  that  America  should 
offer  to  civilization  and  to  humanity  the  high- 
est type  of  the  best.  Let  our  Americanism  be 
intense,  eager,  patriotic,  but  let  it  be  human. 
Let  our  humanitarianism  be  American,  but  let 
it  be  more  than  American,  let  it  be  human. 
Let  our  colleges  be  American  colleges,  but 
American  rather  in  their  geography  than  in 
their  humanity.  Better  for  them  to  be  Ameri- 
can than  European  indeed.  One  professor  in 
an  American  college  writing  of  another  col- 
lege of  which  he  is  a  graduate,  says :  "  It 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  of  late  years  this 
college  has  thrown  its  influence  on  the  side  of 
Europe  rather  than  of  American  methods  of 
thought  and  modes  of  feeling.  To  her  comes 
many  a  country  boy  with  plain  clothes  and 
plain  habits,  with  simple  ideals  and  straight- 
forward bearing,  and  is  transformed  for  a  time 
into  a  dilettante,  who  takes  a  perverse  delight 


136        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

in  despising  homespun  literature  and  learning 
and  in  seeing  beauty  and  wisdom  only  in  what 
comes  to  us  from  the  lands  which  his  youthful 
imagination  surrounds  with  an  unnatural 
glamour."  Let  the  charge  be  false.  Let  our 
colleges  be  neither  Asiatic,  nor  American,  nor 
European.  Let  them  be  human.  It  is  a  great 
thing  to  be  an  American.  It  is  a  greater  thing 
to  be  a  man. 

To  promote  this  magnificent  and  all  com- 
prehending result  the  college  man  and  woman 
are  set  in  their  places.  Diverse  as  these  places 
are,  the  one  element  which  the  collegian  em- 
bodies is  of  common  worth,  and  it  is  priceless; 
the  one  element  of  judgment  is  needed  always, 
everywhere,  and  needed  urgently.  You,  O 
graduates,  can  use  this  element  more  than 
most  others.  Others  have  energy  as  great  as 
yours.  Others  have  manners  as  fine  as  yours. 
Others  have  aims  as  high  as  yours.  Others 
show  a  conduct  as  upright  as  yours.  But  no 
one  should  excel  you  in  having  a  judgment 
sound  and  sane,  exact  and  large.  You  should 
shed  the  finest  and  the  clearest  light  upon  all 
human  and  all  American  problems.  You 
should  offer  a  leading  more  worthy  than  any 
other  guide.  In  order  that  government  may 
govern  without  ruling,  so  wise  is  the  govern" 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        137 

ment,  so  gentle  the  governed;  in  order  that 
education  may  mean  at  once  culture  and  ser- 
vice; in  order  that  the  home  may  become  the 
promise  and  the  pledge  of  heaven;  in  order 
that  literature  may  become  the  interpreter  of 
the  best;  in  order  that  commerce  may  become 
the  minister  of  righteousness;  in  order  that 
journalism  may  be  the  guide  of  truth  and  the 
inspirer  of  duty;  in  order  that  wealth  may  be 
less  a  value  and  more  a  minister  of  values; 
in  order  that  individualism  may  not  become 
autocratic  nor  communism  of  too  common- 
place a  character;  in  order  that  Christianity 
may  have  for  its  principal  adjective  "  Chris- 
tian," and  not  a  denominational  epithet;  in 
order  to  achieve  these  highest  things  in  mind 
and  character,  judgment,  judgment,  JUDG- 
MENT, is  the  one  common  and  mighty  power 
which  the  college  through  its  graduates  should 
offer  to  American  life  and  to  human  destiny. 

It  is  with  confidence  that  I  point  out  this 
duty,  this  privilege,  this  right.  We  in  America 
are  to  be  in  a  constant  crisis.  Archbishop 
Tait  said,  near  the  close  of  his  life,  that  from 
his  early  boyhood  he  had  been  hearing  that  the 
Church  of  England  was  passing  through  a 
crisis.  The  remark  is  as  true  of  everything 
in  America  as  it  is  true  of  the  English  Church. 


138        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

Every  day  is  critical ;  every  day  is  a  judgment 
day ;  every  hour  is  a  pivot  on  which  move  the 
eternities.  In  this  perennial  crisis,  formed  of 
these  conditions,  I  know  that  you  are  to  stand 
and  to  stand  for  wise  beneficence.  In  '61  the 
college  men  stood  firm  and  wise  as  well  as 
heroic.  The  history  of  the  college  men  in  the 
Civil  War  forever  puts  to  flight  the  charge 
which  Wendell  Phillips  made  in  his  Phi  Beta 
Kappa  address  against  the  college  men  as 
being  timid,  selfish,  and  unheroic.  One  of 
these  college  men  said  as  he  fell :  "  Let  me 
die  here  on  the  field.  'Tis  more  glorious  to 
die  on  the  field  of  battle."  Another  wrote  to 
his  wife  just  after  leaving  home :  "  Surely  the 
right  will  prevail.  If  I  live  we  shall  rejoice 
over  our  country's  success.  If  I  die,  remem- 
ber that  you  have  given  your  husband  a  sacri- 
fice to  the  most  righteous  cause  that  ever  wid- 
owed woman."  Another,  as  he  fell — a  mere 
boy  he  was,  not  out  of  his  teens — moving  on 
to  the  attack  on  Fort  Wagner,  said  to  the  sol- 
diers who  offered  to  carry  him  off:  "  Do  not 
touch  me;  move  on,  men.  Follow  your  col- 
ors." Such  was  the  bravery  of  the  college 
men  in  '61.  I  summon  you  not  to  the  life  of 
martial  bravery,  but  I  summon  you  to  a  life 
of  sound  and  sane  judgment  in  all  human  af- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        139 

fairs.  This  sound  and  sane  judgment  at  home 
and  abroad  for  the  betterment  of  humanity 
represents  the  use  of  highest  powers  for  high- 
est purposes. 

Members  of  the  Graduating  Classes:  I  be- 
gan with  the  scene  of  the  temptation,  the 
Evil  One  standing  before  the  Good  One  al- 
luring him  to  evil.  I  close  with  the  scene  of 
the  Christ  standing  before  you,  no  longer  sub- 
ject to  temptation,  but  presenting  opportunity. 
By  the  open  door  of  life  he  stands  and  points 
you  to  what  is  beyond.  He  points  you  to 
the  opportunity  of  service,  not  of  service  only, 
but  of  service  highest,  widest,  largest.  A  great 
college  president  once  said :  "  I  believe  that  a 
great  deal  more  is  to  be  done  to  improve  the 
condition  of  mankind  and  that  the  great  com- 
fort for  each  of  us  is  that  he  has  done  and  is 
doing  something  toward  it."  When  at  last 
you  stand  at  the  closed  door  of  life  and  the 
Christ  who  now  bids  you  Go  and  Do,  asks  on 
your  return  what  you  have  done,  it  will  be  a 
supreme  comfort  to  you  if  you  can  say  that 
you  have  helped  somewhat.  It  will  be  of 
comfort  yet  more  comforting  to  you  if  you 
can  say  at  that  time  that  you  have  helped  to 
the  very  utmost.  The  Christ  will  require 


140       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

of  you  not  one  talent  nor  two,  but  five.  Be 
able  to  say  in  all  humility:  "  I  have  done  the 
best  that  I  could  do.  I  have  been  the  best 
that  I  could  be.  I  give  back  my  best  self 
which  Thou  gavest  me,  O  Christ,  made  the 
best  that  I,  through  Thy  grace,  could  make 
it." 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       141 


X 

THE  PRESENCE  OF  GOD  IN  HIS 
WORLD  IMMEDIATE  AND  PER- 
SONAL 

11  For  in  Him  we  live  and  move  and  have  our 
being." — Acts  xvii.  28. 

GOD  is  within  the  soul:  in  Him  it  lives. 
God  is  without  the  soul:  in  Him  it 
moves.  God  is  over  all;  God  is  be- 
neath all;  God  is  around  all:  in  Him  the  soul 
has  its  being.  "  One  God,  one  law,  one  ele- 
ment." The  one  God  is  all,  the  one  law  is 
divine,  the  one  element  is  divine.  God  fills  all 
time,  past,  present,  future,  and  eternal,  but 
God  is  more  than  time.  God  fills  all  space, 
here,  there,  everywhere,  universal,  but  God  is 
more  than  space. 

Therefore  the  proposition  to  which  I  ask 
your  thought  is  that  God's  presence  in  His 
world  is  immediate  and  personal. 

The  proposition  is  the  old  doctrine  of  the 
omnipresence  of  God.  It  is  also  the  new  doc- 
trine of  the  immanence  of  God.  It  is  the 


142        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

scientific  doctrine  that  all  we  know  of  the 
world  is  that  it  is  force,  combined  with  the 
philosophical  doctrine  that  this  force  is  per- 
sonal. It  is  the  song  of  the  poet  as  well  as 
the  teaching  of  the  philosopher. 

"  I  have  felt 

.    .    .     .    a  sense  sublime 
Of  something  far  more  deeply  interfused, 
Whose  dwelling  is  the  light  of  setting  suns, 
And  the  round  ocean,  and  the  living  air, 
And  the  blue  sky,  and  the  mind  of  man  ; 
A  motion  and  a  spirit  that  impels 
All  thinking  things,  all  objects  of  all  thought, 
And  rolls  through  all  things." 

This  doctrine  is  beset  by  two  limitations. 
The  one  is  pantheism.  God  is  in  all  and  God 
is  all.  But  all  is  not  God.  All  the  eye  sees 
or  the  hand  touches  is  not  God.  God  is  all 
and  more  than  all;  to  the  all  there  must  be  a 
plus.  The  doctrine  may  be  called  a  doctrine 
of  a  personal  pantheism.  The  soul  fills  and 
rules  the  body,  but  the  body  is  not  the  soul, 
nor  is  the  soul  the  body.  God  fills  and  rules 
space  and  force,  but  neither  space  nor  force  is 
God,  nor  is  God  merely  space  and  force. 
Matter  He  fills  and  the  world  He  rules,  but 
matter  may  vanish  and  the  world  cease,  but 
God  is  still  God.  This  doctrine  is  also  sub- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        143 

ject  to  a  second  limitation.  It  must  not  be 
interpreted  to  interfere  with  the  freedom  of 
man.  That  the  will  of  man  is  free  must  still 
obtain.  One  may  adopt  Dr.  Johnson's  short 
method  and  say:  "the  will  is  free  and  that 
is  all  there  is  about  it,"  or  one  may  reason  that 
the  human  will  cannot  be  destroyed  by  divine 
fore-knowledge,  and  that  it  is  not  opposed  by 
divine  predestination.  One  may  speak  of  the 
freedom  of  the  will  as  a  gift  to  man  out  of 
divine  grace,  or  one  may  call  it  an  essential 
part  of  manhood  itself,  but  whatever  form  of 
reasoning  or  of  interpretation  be  adopted,  that 
man  is  free  to  will  must  be  asserted  as  a  pri- 
mary truth.  If  the  revelations  of  self-con- 
sciousness be  at  all  sound,  we  are  more  con- 
vinced that  the  human  will  is  free  than  that 
God  exists. 

It  is  not,  however,  to  an  interpretation  of 
this  doctrine  that  the  presence  of  God  in  His 
world  is  immediate  and  personal,  nor  is  it  to 
the  defense  of  this  doctrine,  that  I  am  to  ask 
your  attention.  But  rather  my  simple  pur- 
pose is  to  point  out,  so  far  as  the  hour  allows, 
certain  results  which  belong  to  the  realm  of 
character  consequent  upon  the  holding  of  this 
doctrine. 

The  doctrine  that  the  presence  of  God  in  his 


144       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

world  is  immediate  and  personal  gives  large- 
ness to  the  conception  of  the  present  life.  For 
it  unites  this  life  with  the  life  of  God.  It 
gives  to  this  life  the  qualities  and  elements  of 
God's  being.  In  point  of  time  the  doctrine 
takes  up  the  temporal  life  and  flings  it  with 
its  limitations  and  narrowness  into  the  depth 
and  breadth  and  height  of  God's  eternal  life. 
In  point  of  space  the  doctrine  takes  up  this 
life,  so  limited  and  narrow,  and  puts  it  into 
relation  with  the  divine  immensities.  It 
makes  the  present  world  one  with  all  worlds. 
As  says  the  psalmist: 

"  If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven,  thou  art  there:  if  I 
make  my  bed  in  hell,  behold,  thou  art  there.  If  I 
take  the  wings  of  the  morning,  and  dwell  in  the 
uttermost  parts  of  the  sea;  even  there  shall  thy  hand 
lead  me,  and  thy  right  hand  shall  hold  me." 

Said  a  young  college  man  on  the  day  of  his 
death,  writing  to  his  devoted  wife  thousands 
of  miles  away,  "  I  live  in  the  ever  present  con- 
sciousness of  my  God,  so  near,  so  loving  and  so 
great."  The  life  that  is  cribbed,  cabined  and 
confined  finds  itself  re-constituted,  enlarged, 
enriched,  heightened,  deepened,  and  widened. 
The  thought  of  God's  immediate  presence  is 
a  great  thought  with  which  the  soul  lifts  itself. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        145 

The  great  thought  becomes  a  great  decision 
by  which  the  soul  awakens  itself,  and 
the  great  decision  becomes  a  great  pur- 
pose to  which  the  soul  moves,  as  stars  and 
planets  move  around  the  central  sun.  God 
does  not  so  much  come  into  the  soul  and  there 
incarnate  himself,  as  the  soul  goes  out  to  God 
and  spiritualizes  itself  in  all  the  divine  being. 
The  miracle  of  the  incarnation  is  not  repeated, 
but  the  miracle  of  the  spiritualization  of  the 
soul  is  done.  Life  becomes  large.  It  takes 
on  cubical  relations.  Its  length  becomes  as 
long  as  God's  eternity,  its  breadth  as  wide  as 
God's  being,  its  height  as  great  as  God's  char- 
acter. 

Be  it  also  said  that  the  sense  of  the  omni- 
presence of  God  gives  to  one's  work  the  high- 
est motives  and  the  noblest  enthusiasm.  Work 
in  humanity's  humdrum  day  tends  to  become 
weariness,  labor  becomes  laboriousness,  ser- 
vice loses  its  wings  and  becomes  weighted. 
Men  fail  to  appreciate  and  men  do  not  forget 
to  scorn.  Failure  crowns  endeavor.  The 
course  of  the  ordinary  man  in  the  ordinary 
work  under  the  ordinary  conditions  is  like  the 
course  of  the  French  peasant,  which  the  mod- 
ern French  artist  delights  to  paint:  heaviness, 
Weight,  weariness,  embodied  in  the  bending 


146        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

shoulder  and  in  the  slowly  moving  body.  But 
the  fact  that  God  is,  and  that  He  is  in  His 
world  in  His  own  day,  gives  to  each  working 
man  spring  and  buoyancy.  Work  ceases 
to  be  merely  human,  and  becomes  divine  ser- 
vice. The  smile  of  ridicule  or  the  smile  of 
pity  no  longer  weigh.  The  presence  of  God 
gives  calmness  without  giving  stagnation,  in- 
tensity without  boisterousness,  courage  with- 
out boldness,  perseverance  without  hardness, 
hopefulness  without  rashness,  and  vision  with- 
out visionariness. 

Of  that  great  English  schoolmaster,  Edward 
Thring,  it  is  said,  that  "  From  the  time  he  came 
to  Uppingham  a  young  and  perhaps  over-con- 
fident enthusiast,  through  years  of  work  and 
weariness,  of  mingled  success  and  disappoint- 
ment, to  the  day  thirty-four  years  later,  when, 
suddenly  stricken,  he  turned  away  a  dying 
man  from  the  altar  of  his  noble  chapel  with 
the  words  of  the  communion  service  upon  his 
lips,  this  thought  that  he  was  doing  the  work 
for  God,  and  under  His  immediate  eye,  never 
forsook  him.  In  every  crisis  of  an  anxious 
life  it  was  the  central  and  sustaining  thought 
which  gave  new  courage."  Upon  every  worker 
the  presence  of  God  may  have  a  similar  influ- 
ence. Such  an  influence  rested  upon  Milton 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        147 

laboring  in  his  great  task-master's  eye.  Such 
an  influence  rested  upon  Lincoln  in  reuniting 
the  nation.  Such  an  influence  must  rest  upon 
every  worker  who  hopes  to  secure  the  highest 
results  under  the  best  conditions. 

This  idea  of  the  immediate  divine  presence 
gives  fearlessness  to  the  individual  life.  In 
the  last  fifty  years  three  doctrines  have  been 
of  peculiar  significance:  the  doctrine  of  his- 
torical criticism  applied  to  all  truth  and  espe- 
cially to  the  Holy  Scriptures,  the  doctrine  of 
evolution,  and  the  new  teachings  of  socialism. 
Strauss  published  his  first  Life  of  Christ  in 
1835  and  his  second  Life  in  1864.  Seelye  is- 
sued his  Ecce  Homo  in  1864.  Charles  Darwin 
published  the  Origin  of  Species  in  1859  and 
the  Descent  of  Man  in  1871.  When  Strauss 
published  his  life  of  Christ  it  was  said  by  some 
that  "  Christianity  has  vanished.  It  has  in- 
deed become  a  myth."  When  Darwin  pub- 
lished his  great  book  it  was  said  that  "  Genesis 
and  Revelation  have  become  as  valueless  as 
the  last  romance."  Strauss  is  dead,  his 
mythical  theory  is  indeed  a  myth,  and  the 
teachings  of  Charles  Darwin  are  now  believed 
to  be  in  thorough  accord  with  the  first  chapter 
of  Genesis  and  the  last  chapter  of  Revelation. 
Nay,  it  is  by  some  believed  that  the  develop- 


148        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

ment  hypothesis  of  the  first  of  Genesis  is  sim- 
ply the  poetical  expression  for  the  scientific 
record  read  by  Darwin,  and  that  the  song  of 
the  angels  in  Revelation  represents  the  highest 
development  of  the  purified  spirit  of  man.  In 
all  these  movements  God  is  present,  over  them 
all  he  is  supreme.  The  whole  creation,  not 
only  material,  but  also  intellectual,  groaneth 
and  travaileth  in  pain,  but  in  it  all  God  is,  and 
out  of  it  cometh  forth  the  birth  of  a  thought 
fuller  and  fresher  and  mightier  of  God  him- 
self. Not  only  can  one  say  to  the  fearful, 
"  Fear  not — the  boat  carries  Caesar,"  but  one 
can  also  say  "  fear  not,  for  not  only  does  the 
boat  carry  the  Divine  One,  but  the  boat  is 
divine,  the  ocean  is  divine,  and  the  sky  over 
all  is  divine/'  No  harm,  lasting  or  ultimate, 
can  come  to  the  soul  that  lives  in  God  and  for 
God  and  by  God.  For  one's  self  and  for  the 
race  one  can  have  no  fear.  For  God  is  pres- 
ent. "  The  eternal  God  is  thy  refuge  and 
underneath  are  the  everlasting  arms." 

This  doctrine  gives  added  sacredness  to  life. 
This  life  becomes  more  holy  and  sacred  be- 
cause God  is  in  it  as  beginning  and  as  ending 
and  as  a  constant  and  continuing  force.  If 
the  figure  be  not  too  bold,  let  me  say  that  the 
hand  of  God  rests  on  all  life  and  the  voice  of 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        149 

God  affirms  that  all  life  is  His.  Not  upon 
Handel  composing  his  Messiah,  not  upon  the 
builder  of  St.  Peter's  nor  of  the  temple  at 
Cologne  or  at  Canterbury,  not  upon  the 
painter  of  the  Divine  Child  and  His  mother, 
does  the  divine  hand  rest  or  is  the  inspiring 
thought  alone  given,  but  to  every  builder  of  a 
humble  home  where  God  dwells,  to  every 
toiler  who  labors  in  honesty  and  faithfulness 
and  with  high  aim,  and  to  every  worker  who  is 
seeking  to  re-create  the  earth  into  an  Eden 
without  the  serpent,  to  every  man  who  strives 
to  know  the  true  and  to  teach  the  true,  who 
loves  the  good  and  arouses  other  souls  to  the 
same  divine  thoughts,  and  who  does  the  right, 
to  them  each  and  all  does  life  become  divine 
and  sacred.  A  distinguished  preacher  has 
lately  said,  "  We  need  to  ethicize  life."  The 
saying  is  true.  But  may  we  not  say  that  we 
need  to  make  life  not  only  goodly,  but  also 
Godly?  We  need  to  relate  life  more  to  God 
than  to  men.  The  human  relation  conies 
forth  from  the  divine.  We  need  first  to  love 
God  with  all  our  power  and  then  we  cannot  help 
loving  men  not  only  as  well  as,  but  better, 
than  ourselves.  One  man  says  that  we  need 
to  make  life  free.  Yes,  we  do.  But  freedom 
is  not  an  aim,  it  is  a  condition.  Freedom  is 


160       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

the  atmosphere  in  which  the  bird  flies  and  is 
valuable  only  as  a  minister  to  life,  as  the  air 
supports  the  bird  in  its  flight.  Let  life  be 
free  in  order  to  make  life  sacred,  but  let  life  not 
be  sacred  in  order  to  make  it  free.  It  is  also 
said  that  life  should  be  made  strong,  and  so  it 
should  be  made.  Let  Carlyle's  Strong  Man 
prevail,  but  let  life  be  sacred  in  the  sacredness 
of  God  and  it  will  have  all  the  strength  which 
the  omnipotence  of  a  holy  God  can  bestow. 
"  He  had  the  strength  of  ten  because  his  heart 
was  pure." 

This  teaching,  too,  that  the  presence  of  God 
is  immediate  and  personal  helps  one  into  a 
better  conception  of  the  simplicity  of  living. 
It  is  the  one  principle  which  may  help  one  to 
a  proper  simplicity.  For,  what  a  complex  life 
is!  What  a  perplex — to  coin  a  word — life  is! 
How  manifold  the  relations  which  meet  in  one 
person!  How  principles  fail  to  adjust  them- 
selves in  practice!  How  opposite  intellect 
and  heart!  How  antagonistic  feeling  and 
choice !  Not  to  untie  all  its  knots,  not  to  un- 
ravel all  its  snarled  tangles,  can  any  principle 
or  method  prove  sufficient;  but  the  principle 
that  God  is  here  and  that  God  is  here  now,  is 
less  insufficient  than  any  other.  Two  ques- 
tions have  ever  perplexed  man,  and  ever  will, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       151 

and  to-day  they  are  no  less  perplexing  than 
they  were  in  the  time  of  Job  and  Plato,  of 
Seneca  and  Paul.  The  one  question  is, 
"  Does  man  live  after  dying,"  and  the  other  is, 
"  What  is  my  duty  to  my  neighbor  ? "  To 
the  first  is  made  answer  clear  and  strong  by  our 
doctrine.  God  declares,  "  So  long  as  I  am 
and  so  long  as  you  are  in  me,  so  long  you 
are  to  live.  You  can  cease  to  live  only  by 
ceasing  to  be  in  me."  The  soul  in  God  is  as 
deathless  as  God  himself.  Can  God  die?  No 
more  can  you,  being  in  God.  And  to  the  sec- 
ond question  is  made  answer,  your  duty  to 
your  neighbor  is  the  duty  of  God  himself,  to 
help  and  to  bless.  "  So  long  as  I  am  in  you 
and  you  in  me,"  says  God,  "  and  so  long  as  I 
give  to  you  all,  so  long  you  are  to  give  to  him 
who  is  near  to  you  in  any  relation  whatever." 
In  all  the  social  and  socialistic  questions  that 
confront  us  I  know  of  only  one  principle 
which  will  help  men  to  see  straight  and  to 
think  clear,  and  that  is  the  principle  that  God 
is  here  and  now.  The  man  who  feels  himself 
in  God  and  who  knows  that  he  is  a  part  of  God 
is  the  man  who  will  do,  according  to  his 
vision,  all  that  his  neighbor  can  rightfully  de- 
mand. In  the  strainings  and  struggles,  in 
the  frettings  and  fearings  of  this  time  of  great 


152        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

social  quakings,  the  preaching  of  the  just  and 
loving  God,  who  is  the  father  of  all  men  and 
who,  therefore,  constitutes  all  men  brethren, 
will  help  each  man  to  find  in  every  other 
man's  good  the  rule  of  his  conduct,  and  in 
every  man's  character  the  inspiration  for  his 
own  well  being  and  well  doing. 

Be  it  said,  too,  that  this  doctrine  gives  to  life 
a  sense  of  unity.  The  increasing  unity  of  all 
life  characterizes  the  fast  dying  century.  In 
government  we  have  United  Germany,  one 
Fatherland,  made  from  more  than  a  score  of 
states  of  a  hundred  years  ago;  United  Italy, 
composed  of  half  a  score  of  states  of  a  hun- 
dred years  ago;  and  the  United  States  of 
America,  more  united  by  far  than  a  hundred 
years  ago.  The  federation  of  all  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  people  is  the  rallying  cry  of  the  last 
years  of  this  great  age,  and  already  we  hear 
the  suggestion  made  regarding  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  world  for  the  world's  betterment 
and  supreme  contentment.  One  humanity,  as 
there  is  one  God!  As  in  government,  so  in 
the  sciences.  The  one  force  studied  in  one 
law  and  relationship  becomes  the  science  of 
Physics.  The  same  force  studied  in  respect  to 
its  constitution  and  elements  becomes  the 
science  of  Chemistry.  The  same  force  studied 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        153 

in  respect  to  its  vital  relations  becomes  the 
science  of  Biology.  The  same  force  studied 
in  one  relation  becomes  Geology,  in  another 
Astronomy,  and  so  on  through  the  long  and 
ever  lengthening  line.  But  more  constant 
than  the  increasing  oneness  of  matter,  more 
constant  than  the  increasing  oneness  of 
nations,  more  constant  than  the  increasing 
oneness  of  man,  is  the  assurance  that  God  is  in 
all  and  over  all  and  through  all,  and  also  the 
assurance  that  as  God  is  over  all  and  through 
all  and  in  all,  so  all  that  God  is  in  and  all  that 
God  is  over,  is  one.  The  soul  that  lives  in  such 
a  God  finds  itself  not  a  fraction,  but  a  unit.  It 
itself  is  whole  and  complete.  The  oneness  of 
life  in  God  is  the  one  theme  to  which  life's 
music  returns  from  all  the  sad  and  glad  varia- 
tions of  the  Miserere  or  the  Gloria  in  Excelsis. 
Yet  while  life  is  one,  it  is  not  sameness.  The 
unity  of  life  is  the  unity  of  the  curve  ;not  of  the 
curve,  but  rather  of  the  ascending  spiral. 
For  as  life  turns  upon  itself  it  turns  into  a 
higher  plane.  As  life  turns  around,  life  goes 
upward.  The  doctrine  of  the  evolutionary 
sciences  is  the  doctrine  of  the  theologian.  Man 
is  in  God  and  therefore  he  is  to  become  more 
and  more  like  God,  and  becoming  more  and 
more  like  God,  he  becomes  more  godly.  "  It 


154        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

doth  not  yet  appear  what  we  shall  be,"  but  we 
shall  be  like  Him.  Birth  is  your  first  coming 
into  God's  being;  life  is  your  constant  coming 
more  and  more  into  God's  being;  death  is  the 
second  coming,  and  fuller,  into  that  being. 
The  infinite  progress  of  your  character  be- 
longs to  you  as  living  and  loving  and  having 
your  being  in  God.  All  that  the  prophets 
have  foreseen  you  are  to  behold.  All  that  the 
philosopher  has  dreamed  you  are  to  find  real. 
All  that  the  poet  has  sung  you  are  to  enjoy. 
All  that  the  priest  has  promised  you  are  to  re- 
ceive. In  ever  richer  realization  of  the  life 
of  God  you  are  to  live,  so  long  as  life  is  life 
and  so  long  as  God  is  God. 

When  we  fling  these  great  conceptions  of 
largeness,  of  high  motives,  of  fearlessness,  of 
sacredness,  of  simplicity,  of  unity  and  of  prog- 
ress over  against  the  yet  larger  canvas  of  the 
life  of  the  Christ,  one  sees  how  the  life  of  God 
in  Christ  made  His  own  life  all  that  it  was. 
It  was  a  large  life,  was  the  life  of  Christ. 
Large  in  time :  "  Before  Abraham  was,  I  am," 
he  cries.  Large  in  space:  He  could  summon 
heaven's  hosts  to  help.  Large  in  relations: 
"  All  power  is  given  unto  me  in  heaven  and  in 
earth."  It  was  a  fearless  life:  His  peace  He 
gives  unto  His  trembling  disciples.  Of  course 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        155 

it  was  a  holy  life:  for  he  declares  "  My  Father 
and  I  are  one."  It  was  a  simple  life:  "  Let  not 
your  heart  be  troubled — ye  believe  in  God,  be- 
lieve also  in  Me."  It  was  a  life  of  oneness  and 
of  progress:  the  miracle  of  the  birth  was  one 
with  the  miracle  of  the  resurrection,  and  the 
miracle  of  the  resurrection  was  one  with  the 
miracle  of  the  ascension.  Christ  is  all  this, 
and  supremely,  because  He  is  the  God-man. 
As  each  man  is  filled  with  God  and  knows  that 
he  dwells  in  the  world  in  which  every  bush  is 
aflame  with  God,  does  his  life  become  large 
and  true,  holy  and  simple,  complete  and  noble. 
Such  also  is  the  life  of  humanity.  As  man 
has  had  his  hold  on  God  strong  and  firm,  as 
God  has  filled  the  soul  of  man,  so  has  been 
great  and  brave  and  holy  and  devoted  and  in- 
finite the  life  of  man  himself.  Wherever  man 
has  not  had  God,  there  has  man  become  his 
lowest  and  meanest,  his  narrowest  and  smallest 
self.  That  is  a  noble  sentence  of  Bacon :  "  It 
is  a  heaven  upon  earth  when  a  man's  mind 
rests  on  Providence,  moves  in  charity  and  turns 
upon  the  poles  of  truth."  And,  be  it  said, 
when  a  man's  mind  does  rest  upon  Providence, 
it  must  move  in  charity  and  it  cannot  but  turn 
on  the  poles  of  truth.  As  man  rests  in  God 
and  God  rests  in  man,  all  the  blessings  of  life 


156       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

and  of  power  and  of  truth  become  his  treasure 
and  his  agent. 

"  Ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free. 
The  eager  heart,  the  kindlier  hand; 
Ring  out  the  darkness  of  the  land, 
Ring  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be!" 

Yes,  and  as  one  rings  in  the  Christ  that  is  to 
be,  he  does  ring  in  the  valiant  man  and  free; 
and  as  one  rings  in  the  Christ  that  is  to  be,  he 
does  ring  in  the  eager  heart,  the  kindlier 
hand;  and  as  one  rings  in  the  Christ,  the 
Light  of  the  Word,  he  rings  out  the  darkness 
of  the  land.  Humanity  becomes  large  and 
fearless,  holy  and  simple,  complete  and  in- 
finite, as  God  is  known  and  felt  and  loved  in 
and  of  this  world  of  ours. 

The  Members  of  the  Graduating  Classes: 
And  now  has  come  the  hour  of  parting.  We 
must  say  "  farewell."  But  we  will  not  say 
"  good-by."  For  we  need  not  say  "  God  be 
with  you/'  for  God  is  with  you.  For  you  are 
with  God.  Only  your  own  will  can  put  God 
away  from  you  and  yourself  away  from  God. 
In  all  the  hours  of  all  these  years  there  has 
been  no  hour  when  you  were  more  eager  to 
receive  God  and  to  dwell  in  Him  than  in  this 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        157 

present.  In  all  the  hours  and  years  you  are  to 
live,  into  all  experiences  you  will  bear  some- 
what of  the  feeling  and  faith  of  this  night. 
God  is  here ;  God  is  present.  May  this  feeling 
and  this  faith  give  largeness  to  all  your  future 
May  this  conviction  make  purpose  higher  and 
enthusiasm  finer.  May  this  assurance  make 
you  fearless  without  making  you  bold.  May 
this  belief  make  all  your  hopes  and  relations 
holy  and  divine.  May  this  truth  aid  you  in 
finding  and  holding  the  talisman  which  shall 
keep  your  life  simple  and  plain;  and  may  this 
thought  bless  you  by  giving  to  your  life  holi- 
ness, completeness,  and  a  sense  of  the  infinite. 
And  at  the  close  of  life's  day  may  the  truth 
that  in  God  you  are,  give  you  faith  to  believe 
that  as  your  sun  sets,  it  sets  only  to  rise  upon 
a  new  and  infinite  world  where  you  are  to 
dwell  in  ever-enlarging  life  with  the  same  God 
forever. 


158       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 


XI 

GOD  IS  HUMAN:  MAN  DIVINE 

"  God  created  man  in  His  own  image." — Genesis 
i.  27. 

"  The  Lamb  slain  from  the  foundation  of   the 
world." — Revelation  xiii.  8. 

THESE  two  records,  the  one  found  in 
the  first  book  of  the  Bible  and  the 
other  in  the  last,  the  one  suggestive  of 
the  prehistoric  time  and  the  other  of  the 
apocalyptic  vision,  set  forth  a  single  truth  in 
opposite  ways.  "  The  Lamb  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world  "  means  that  the  god- 
head has  and  has  ever  had  in  itself  a  human 
part.  "  God  made  man  in  his  own  image  " 
means  that  man  has  in  his  own  being  a 
divine  element.  "  The  Lamb  slain  from  the 
foundation  of  the  world " :  the  humanity  of 
God.  "  God  made  man  in  His  own  image": 
the  divinity  of  humanity.  Humanity  is  di- 
vine; divinity  is  human.  This  is  not  to  say 
that  man  is  equal  to  God  as  man  is  equal  to 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        159 

man.  This  is  not  to  say  that  God  is  equal  to 
man  as  God  is  equal  to  God.  But  this  is  to 
say  that  man  and  God  are  alike  in  certain 
essential  elements  and  parts  of  their  being. 

God  is  human.  For  what  is  humanity? 
Humanity  is  to  see,  to  reason,  to  think,  to 
judge,  to  will.  Humanity  is  to  exult  in  the 
delight  of  the  choice  of  the  right;  to  shiver 
and  to  shrink  under  the  tooth  of  remorse  for 
the  choice  of  the  wrong.  Humanity  is  to  be 
free.  It  is  to  be  conscious  of  power.  It  is  to 
know  that  one  is  alive  and  that  one  is  touch- 
ing mind  to  mind,  heart  to  heart,  soul  to 
soul.  It  is  to  desire,  to  sacrifice,  to  love.  Hu- 
manity is  not  simply  matter,  as  is  the  material 
world.  Humanity  is  not  simply  growth,  as 
is  the  world  of  plants.  Humanity  is  mind,  is 
reason,  conscience,  and  a  free  will. 

And  what  is  God?  Is  not  God  reason? 
Does  not  God  think  and  know?  Is  not  God 
of  a  moral  nature?  Does  not  all  Scripture 
describe  Him  primarily  as  a  being  of  right- 
eousness? Is  not  God  possessed  of  creative, 
self-directing  power?  Has  He  not  a  heart? 
Does  He  not  love? 

Is  it  not  therefore  clear  that  we  can  say  that 
God  is  human? 

Man  is  divine.     For  what  is  divinity?     The 


160        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

theologians  draw  their  definition  and  say  that 
God  is  a  person  endowed  with  every  excellence : 
His  knowledge  is  omniscience,  His  power 
omnipotence,  and  His  presence  omnipresence. 
He  is  the  sustainer  of  the  universe  and  the 
power  that  makes  everywhere  and  always  for 
righteousness.  He  is,  as  says  Kant,  "  the 
supreme  being  who  is  author  of  all  things  by 
free  and  understanding  action/' 

Is  man  such?  Yes,  man  has  knowledge  al- 
though his  knowledge  is  not  omniscience;  a 
man  has  power  though  his  power  is  not  omni- 
potence; and  man  also  is  free  as  God  Himself 
is  free. 

Is  it  not  therefore  clear  that  we  can  say 
man  is  divine? 

Therefore  if  God  is  human  and  if  man  is 
divine,  we  may  affirm  that  God  and  man  are 
alike  in  essential  parts  and  elements. 

We  have  thus  simply  reached  a  most  signifi- 
cant truth :  the  likeness  of  God  and  man.  It  is 
a  truth  which  is  akin  to  one  of  the  great  scien- 
tific inductions  of  our  century,  namely,  the 
unity  of  all  matter.  We  have  learned  that 
planet  and  star  are  made  of  physical  matter 
and  that  this  matter  is  the  same  with  the  ma- 
terials which  constitute  the  earth.  This  simple 
truth  is  also  akin  to  another  scientific  indue- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        161 

I 

tion  of  our  century:  that  one  law,  as  well  as 
one  element,  rules — the  law  of  evolution 
which  obtains  throughout  all  the  orders  of 
being.  God  is  God,  and  godlikeness  is  still 
godlikeness,  whether  found  in  God  or  in  man. 
Man  is  man,  and  love  and  reason  are  still  love 
and  reason  whether  found  in  man  or  in  God. 
We  need  have  no  fear  of  the  anthropomorphic 
or  of  the  theanthropic.  We  shall  not  degrade 
the  Divine  by  picturing  Him  under  the  forms 
of  humanity,  if  only  that  humanity  be  the  best. 
Neither  shall  we  unduly  exalt  man.  We  shall 
not  picture  man  under  the  divine  image 
simply.  Let  us  be  afraid  neither  of  lifting 
man  up  to  the  height  of  God,  nor  of  sinking 
God  down  to  the  level  of  man.  For  God  is 
human  and  man  is  divine.  Truth  in  man  is 
truth  in  God,  and  truth  in  God  is  truth  in  man. 
Right  in  man  is  right  in  God,  and  right  in 
God  is  right  in  man.  Love  in  man  is  love  in 
God,  and  love  in  God  is  love  in  man.  There 
cannot  be  one  standard  for  the  verities  and  the 
virtues  in  the  realm  of  divinity,  and  another 
standard  for  the  verities  and  the  virtues  in  the 
domain  of  humanity.  We  need  not  fear  de- 
pressing Him  who  gave  His  only  begotten 
Son  because  of  His  love  for  the  world.  We 
need  not  fear  exalting  him  who  was  made  in 


162        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

the  divine  image,  and  who  partakes  of  the  di- 
vine nature.  "  God  geometrizes,"  says  Plato, 
and  "The  true  Sahekinah  is  man,"  says 
Chrysostom.  Wherever  in  history  God  has 
been  thought  of  as  a  great  personality,  there 
man  has  been  lifted  and  dignified,  and  wher- 
ever God  has  been  degraded,  there  also  has 
been  degraded  man;  a  great  God  makes  man 
great,  and  a  great  manhood  demands  a  great 
divinity. 

This  truth  that  man  is  divine  and  that  God 
is  human  I  now  wish  to  apply  to  three  great 
departments  of  our  common  life.  For  it  sheds 
light,  I  think,  upon  the  field  of  formal  Chris- 
tian doctrine,  upon  the  field  of  education,  and 
also  upon  the  domain  of  life  itself  as  an  op- 
portunity of  noblest  service. 

The  central  doctrine  of  Christianity  is  the 
doctrine  of  the  being  of  God.  An  element  of 
this  doctrine  is  the  conception  which  the  hu- 
man mind  forms  of  God  Himself.  In  one  re- 
spect the  human  mind  declines  to  make  a  pic- 
ture of  God.  God  is  infinite,  eternal,  change- 
less, absolute,  transcending  the  human  under- 
standing. Of  such  a  being  the  mind  can  make 
no  picture;  and  yet  the  reflective  mind  is  so 
made  that  it  is  obliged  to  form  some  concep- 
tion of  God.  The  royal  conception  is  the  more 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        163 

constant  and  significant.  The  oriental  mind 
has  taken  that  image,  the  image  of  a  sovereign, 
which  is  remote  from  itself  and  most  splendid, 
and  has  clothed  that  image  with  divine  at- 
tributes and  perfections.  God  may  be  a  king, 
but  He  is  also  something  far  other  than  a 
sovereign.  That  "  other  "  includes  all  that  is 
noblest  and  finest  and  greatest  in  humanity. 
The  paternal  conception  is  also  consistent  and 
significant.  God  is  the  father,  the  mother. 
He  creates,  He  forms,  He  constitutes.  He 
cares  for,  He  loves,  He  blesses.  But  neither 
the  kingly  nor  the  paternal  conception  is  com- 
plete. God  is  infinite,  but  He  is  personal.  He 
is  eternal,  but  He  enters  into  time.  He  is 
everywhere  and  He  is  therefore  here.  He  is 
sufficient  unto  Himself;  but  He  delights  in 
His  creatures.  "  God  wills/'  it  is  said,  yet 
God's  willing  is  not  Fate,  but  the  personal  act 
of  a  personal  being;  "  God  ordains,"  it  is  said, 
yet  the  ordaining  of  God  is  not  chance,  but 
the  outgoing  of  a  heart  of  love ;  "  God  fills 
all,"  it  is  said,  yet  the  person  of  God  is  not  the 
poet's  divine  atmosphere,  but  all  the  being  of  a 
God  in  all  parts  at  one  and  the  same  moment. 
Let  every  aspiration  of  man  which  has  become 
achievement,  and  every  aspiration  which  has 
flung  itself  so  far  into  the  sky  that  it  could 


164        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

not  come  back,  every  wish  which  has  been  ful- 
filled, every  hope  which  has  been  realized, 
every  wish  and  hope  which  await  consumma- 
tion, all  loves  which  have  poured  themselves 
out,  and  all  powers  which  have  been  nobly 
used, — let  them  all  be  gathered  up  together, 
and  all  put  into  the  greatest  personality, — let 
all  this  be  regarded  as  God,  and  one  has  a 
slight  conception  of  godhead  which,  however 
remote  it  may  be  from  reality  is  yet  the  near- 
est approach  we  can  make  to  understanding 
the  godhead,  until  we  come  to  see  face  to  face 
and  to  know  even  as  we  are  known.  Every 
mother  to  the  devout  child  is  an  intimation 
of  divinity.  But,  be  it  observed  that  this  con- 
ception is  purely  and  simply  human.  It  is 
gathering  up  all  that  is  noblest  and  highest 
and  grandest  and  greatest  in  human  service 
and  relations  and  transferring  them  into  the 
divine  personality.  I  do  not  fail,  I  hope,  to 
recognize  difficulties  and  objections ;  yet  this  is 
the  wisest  method.  From  knowing  man  we 
are  able  to  know  God.  In  every  conception 
of  God  there  must  be  something  anthropomor- 
phic. 

But  our  thought  also  sheds  light  upon  the 
doctrine  of  Christ's  person.  The  orthodox 
church  declares  that  Christ  had  two  natures 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        165 

joined  in  one  person.  "  Christ  was  both  God 
and  man,"  affirms  the  believer.  The  endeavor 
to  explain  this  union  and  this  difference  has 
usually  resulted  in  an  appeal  to  the  principles 
of  Christian  agnosticism.  That  Christ  was 
God  the  theologian  has  tried  to  prove  out  of 
the  New  Testament.  That  Christ  was  man 
the  theologian  has  tried  to  prove  both  out  of 
the  New  Testament  and  out  of  experi- 
ence. How  Christ  was  both  of  God  and 
man  the  theologian  has  usually  refrained  from 
telling.  Does  not  the  humanity  of  God  and 
the  divinity  of  man  help  us  to  read  the  riddle? 
Christ  was  both  God  and  man.  Because 
He  was  God,  He  must  be  man;  and  because 
He  was  man  largest,  and  noblest,  He  must 
be  God.  He  could  not  be  or  become  the  one 
without  being  also  the  other.  "  The  Lamb 
was  slain  from  the  foundation  of  the  world." 
If  there  came  a  time  when  the  arms  of  the 
Cross  were  stretched  out  over  the  world  from 
Calvary's  mountain,  there  never  was  a  time 
when  the  arms  of  the  Eternal  were  not  put 
underneath  the  world,  hugging  the  world 
close  and  tight.  The  heart  of  the  Eternal 
has  always  been  manifest  in  human  lives.  The 
miracles  of  the  Incarnation  and  of  Olivet 
stand  for  the  eternal  truth.  They  are  tern- 


166       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

poral  explanations  of  everlasting  verities. 
The  Christ  of  Nazareth  and  of  Jerusalem  was 
divine.  He  was  so  godlike  that  He  could  not 
but  be  human.  He  was  so  human  that  He 
could  not  but  be  divine. 

We  are  also  able  to  receive  aid  concerning 
our  doctrine  of  heaven.  The  question  "  where 
is  heaven "  has  given  place  to  the  question 
"  what  is  heaven?  "  And  what  is  heaven?  The 
answer  comes  back  to  us:  "  Heaven  is  God." 
Again :  "  What  is  heaven  ?  "  and  the  answer 
comes  back:  "where  one's  friends  are;  their 
presence  constitutes  blessedness."  Each  an- 
swer, we  know,  is  true.  Each  answer  repre- 
sents the  divine  nature,  and  the  human,  that 
vision  and  state  which  each  heart  expects. 
Heaven  is  where  God  is.  God  is  there.  And 
also  because  God  is  there  all  that  is  fairest 
and  loveliest  and  worthiest  in  human  relations 
is  there,  and  because  all  that  is  fairest  and 
loveliest  and  worthiest  is  there,  God  is  there 
also.  Heaven  is  the  noblest  man  himself,  di- 
vine and  human,  dwelling  in  conditions  which 
are  both  human  and  divine. 

Let  us  pass  from  the  realm  of  doctrine  to 
the  realm  of  education.  For  our  main  propo- 
sition gives  light  upon  two  points  in  the  edu- 
cation of  our  time.  What  is  the  worth  of 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        167 

education?  we  ask.  One  answer  is  that  edu- 
cation is  of  some  worth  through  its  making 
the  man  educated  able  to  do.  One  answer 
is  that  education  is  of  some  worth  because  the 
man  educated  has  become  a  larger  man.  An- 
other answer  is  that  education  is  of  some 
worth  because  the  man  educated  is  made  more 
like  God.  "  Education/'  says  Professor  Whe- 
well,  "  is  the  process  by  which  man  is  admitted 
from  the  sphere  of  his  narrow  individuality 
into  the  great  sphere  of  humanity."  John  Mil- 
ton, in  fine  and  familiar  phrase,  says  "  a  com- 
plete and  general  education  is  that  which  fits  a 
man  to  perform  justly,  skillfully  and  mag- 
nanimously all  the  offices,  both  private  and 
public,  of  peace  and  of  war."  That  education 
is  good  which  fits  a  man  to  do  great  things, 
but  that  education  is  better  which  fits  a  man 
to  be  a  great  man.  Training  is  better  than 
equipment.  And  the  great  man  is  the  man 
who  is  free  from  provincialism,  who  is  a  con- 
stituent part  of  the  race.  That  education  is 
best,  therefore,  which  makes  a  man  largely 
human.  The  man  educated  ceases  to  be  a 
German  or  a  Frenchman  or  an  Englishman, 
and  he  becomes  something  better  than  either 
— a  man.  Being  a  large  man,  he  is  to  be  of 
larger  worth  to  the  world.  Service  arises 


168        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

from  character,  rather  than  character  from  ser- 
vice. The  demand  is  for  a  practical  educa- 
tion, and  the  practical  education  we  are  in- 
clined to  interpret  as  a  material  education.  But 
what  is  the  most  practical,  the  most  useful 
thing  in  the  world?  A  hand?  It  can  do 
much.  A  tongue?  It  can  inspire  much.  But 
the  hand  without  a  trained  brain  to  direct  is 
the  hand  of  a  bungler.  The  voice  without  a 
brain  to  give  thought  is  not  a  voice,  but  an 
echo.  A  great  manhood  is  the  most  useful 
thing  in  the  world.  Education  makes  the 
great  manhood.  Education,  making  the  large 
man,  makes  the  useful  man.  Education,  mak- 
ing the  large  and  useful  man,  makes  a  man 
in  the  type  of  Him  who  knows  what  is  in 
man  and  who  also  works  the  works  of  His 
Father. 

We  also  receive  confirmation  of  our  com- 
mon belief  respecting  the  method  of  the 
higher  education.  That  method  must  still  be 
the  human  method.  We  build  laboratories; 
we  increase  libraries;  we  multiply  apparatus. 
We  cannot  build  too  many  nor  increase  too 
much,  but  after  that  is  done,  man  is  the  chief 
power  and  the  constant  educating  force.  The 
great  historian  of  the  universities  of  Europe  in 
the  middle  ages,  Rashdall,  writes  of  the  di- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        169 

versified  type  of  the  mediaeval  university:  "  It 
is  a  common  idea  that  a  university  must  have 
all  faculties.  There  were  very  famous  uni- 
versities in  the  Middle  Ages  which  were  noth- 
ing of  the  kind.  It  has  been  said  that  the 
collegiate  condition  is  peculiar  to  England, 
but  it  is  true  that  colleges  were  founded  in 
nearly  all  the  universities.  It  has  been  said 
that  the  course  in  arts  was  looked  upon  as  a 
course  preparatory  to  the  higher  faculties,  but 
we  know  that  in  the  universities  of  northern 
Europe  many  students  never  entered  a  higher 
faculty  at  all.  The  mediaeval  system  was  ver- 
satile, but  there  was  one  respect  in  which  all 
universities,  of  England  and  of  the  Continent, 
of  the  north  and  of  the  south  of  Europe,  were 
alike,  and  that  is  that  they  brought  together 
in  living  intercourse  teacher  and  teacher, 
teacher  and  student,  and  student  and  student." 
So  writes  the  historian.  Reason  must  kindle 
reason,  heart  must  warm  heart,  will  must 
quicken  will,  and  character  must  move  char- 
acter. The  human  powers  are  still  the  great- 
est powers  in  education.  The  scholasticism  of 
the  mediaeval  time  gives  way  to  the  classicism 
of  the  renaissance  and  the  classicism  of  the  re- 
naissance gives  way  to  all  modern  studies.  But 
better,  far  better,  than  the  discrimination  and 


170        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

the  disquisition  of  the  Middle  Ages,  far  better 
than  all  the  new  baptism  of  the  renaissance, 
are  the  Abelards  and  the  new  Aristotles  who 
gave  themselves  to  their  students.  In  method, 
in  purpose,  and  in  result,  education  is  simply 
the  making  of  a  great  soul.  Great  souls  are 
not  made  by  laws,  although  they  are  made  un- 
der laws.  They  may  come  under  environ- 
ment, contributive  or  corrupting.  But  the 
essential  thing  is  that  great  souls  are  created 
by  great  souls.  Therefore  if  we  wish  students 
human  and  divine  and  great,  let  us  have  great 
teachers.  Let  us  have  great  souls  as  leaders, 
inspirers,  builders,  makers,  creators. 

We  can  also  find  help  in  the  main  proposi- 
tion of  our  discourse  in  making  the  choice  of 
life's  work  and  possibly,  too,  aid  in  doing 
life's  work.  All  life  is  good ;  all  work  is  good. 
The  comment  which  the  Creator  made  upon 
each  part  of  His  work  we  may  still  make.  But 
some  life  is  better  than  other  life,  and  some 
work  superior  to  other  work.  What  is  the 
best  life  for  one  to  live?  What  is  the  best 
work  for  one  to  choose  as  his  life's  calling? 
The  life  and  the  work  which  are  the  most  hu- 
man and  the  most  divine.  And  what  are  most 
human  and  most  divine?  Simply  that  life  and 
that  work  into  which  reason  enters  the  most 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        171 

fully,  into  which  the  moral  laws  of  our  being 
meet  the  noblest  obedience,  and  in  which  the 
will  of  man  may  move  with  the  largest  free- 
dom, greatest  power,  in  fullest  efficiency.  The 
work  most  worth  the  doing  is  the  work  into 
which  enters  the  largest  freedom,  the  most 
rigorous  conscience,  and  the  strongest  will. 
The  work  which  is  the  least  worth  doing  is  the 
work  which  demands  the  least  thought,  the 
least  feeling,  and  the  least  love.  The  more 
you  can  put  yourself  into  a  calling,  the  more 
worthy  that  calling  is  of  you.  The  less  you 
can  put  yourself  in  a  calling,  the  less  worthy 
is  that  calling  for  you.  The  college,  I  trust, 
has  enlarged  and  enriched  and  ennobled  you. 
It  has  given  you  at  once  training  and  equip- 
ment. It  has  transmuted  sentiments  into 
principles  of  character,  and  rules  into  uncon- 
scious conduct.  It  has  enlarged  the  field  of 
activity  for  your  mind,  and  strengthened  your 
will.  It  has  broadened  the  domain  of  feeling 
and  made  feeling  finer  and  nobler.  You, 
therefore,  are  demanding  for  yourself  a  work 
and  a  life  unlike  the  work  and  the  life  you 
would  have  chosen  a  few  years  ago.  You, 
therefore,  demand  conditions  into  which  you 
can  put  your  finest  self,  your  noblest  self,  your 
largest  self.  With  no  other  conditions  will 


172       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

you  be  content.  With  no  other  conditions  can 
you  be  content.  With  such  conditions  you 
should  be,  and  you  will  be,  content.  Let  your 
work  in  life  make  the  severest  demands  upon 
your  highest  powers  and  fullest  resources; 
and  let  your  powers  be  so  high  and  so  strong 
and  your  resources  so  ample  that  the  greatest 
demands  may  be  met.  That  calling  is  to  be 
your  calling  which  calls  for  the  largest  in  you, 
and  that  life  is  to  be  your  life  in  which  you 
live  your  largest  self,  and  that  largest  self  is 
the  divine  and  the  human  being  which  you 
are.  You  will,  therefore,  never  be  satisfied 
with  making  a  living.  You  must  live  a  life 
that  is  human  in  its  content  and  divine  in  its 
relations. 

The  last  year  of  the  century  is  a  year  for  the 
Anglo-Saxon  race  unlike  any  other  year  for 
many  decades.  It  is  a  year  of  war  against  in- 
ferior races.  In  the  present  degree  of  civ- 
ilization, war  is  inevitable.  War  makes  laws 
silent.  War  uses  reason  to  deceive,  con- 
science to  debase,  and  will  to  destroy.  War 
reverses  the  highest  and  the  lowest.  What 
civilization  puts  up,  war  puts  down.  What 
war  puts  up,  civilization  puts  down.  It  is 
not  because  man  has  not  found  the  human  and 
the  divine  in  himself,  and  in  his  brother,  but  it 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        173 

is  because  man  has  found  the  inhuman  and 
the  unhuman  and  the  devilish  in  himself  and 
in  his  brother  that  he  fights  and  slays.  You 
are  to  live  your  life  and  to  do  your  work  in 
the  first  half  of  the  new  century.  May  that 
century  be  a  century  of  peace!  For  in  such 
peace,  that  reason  in  you,  which  is  the  tran- 
script of  the  divine  reason,  shall  have  the  widest 
field  of  understanding;  in  such  peace,  that 
conscience  which  is  the  voice  of  God  in  your 
bosom,  shall  speak  the  most  wisely  and  per- 
suasively; in  such  peace,  your  will  shall  have 
noblest  opportunity  for  giving  the  best  service 
for  the  re-creating  of  the  second  Eden,  which 
shall  be  the  service  of  God. 
The  members  of  the  graduating  classes: 
My  Friends:  That  book  of  the  Bible 
whence  is  taken  my  first  text,  describes  the 
paradise  in  which  were  placed  man  and 
woman,  their  temptation,  their  fall,  and  their 
expulsion  in  sorrow  and  pain  and  shame. 
That  book  of  the  Bible  whence  is  taken  my 
second  text  describes  the  second  paradise  in 
which  are  the  men  and  women  who  are  no 
longer  tempted,  who  no  longer  fail  or  fall, 
from  whose  eyes  are  washed  the  tears  and 
whose  songs  are  hosannas.  At  some  place 
and  time  between  these  two  paradises  your 


174       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

lives  are  placed,  but  nearer  at  this  present 
time  to  the  paradise  which  is  to  be  regained 
than  to  the  paradise  which  has  been  lost.  Year 
by  year,  day  by  day,  are  your  lives  to  ap- 
proach yet  nearer  the  second  paradise.  For 
reason,  enlightened  by  truth,  shall  lead  you 
thither  by  ever  quickening  but  never  hurrying 
footsteps;  the  divine  name  shall  be  on  your 
foreheads ;  the  call  of  conscience  shall  in  fullest 
revelation  find  God  within  as  well  as  without, 
for  the  Lord  God  shall  give  light;  the  will 
shall  be  taught  in  the  obedience  of  perfect 
law  and  of  perfect  freedom ;  the  divine  statutes 
shall  be  sung  in  the  house  of  pilgrimage;  the 
divine  in  you  shall  become  more  divine,  be- 
cause it  has  become  more  human;  and  the  hu- 
man shall  become  more  human,  because  it  has 
become  more  divine.  At  last  shall  you  find 
yourself  coming  to  your  full  being  in  His  like- 
ness, and  then  shall  you  be  satisfied.  Until 
the  dawn  of  that  day,  whether  near  or  remote, 
may  God  keep  you  and  bless  you;  may  God 
make  His  face  to  shine  upon  you  and  be 
gracious  unto  you ;  may  God  lift  up  His  coun- 
tenance upon  you  and  give  you  peace. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       175 


XII 

THE  RELIGIOUS  BELIEFS  OF  THE 
EDUCATED  MAN  OF  THE  TWEN- 
TIETH CENTURY 

Text  :  "  Now  the  end  of  the  commandment  is 
charity  out  of  a  pure  heart,  and  of  a  good  conscience, 
and  of  faith  unfeigned."  —  i  Timothy  i.  5. 


is  the  theologian  of  the  early 
church  ;  John  its  mystic  ;  Peter  and  James 
its  executives.  Yet  the  theologian 
writes  the  mystical  and  practical  words  of  my 
text.  These  words  are  mystical  and  practical. 
They  are  also  theological.  They  are  com- 
prehensive and  inclusive  of  the  end,  content, 
and  method  of  Christianity.  They  could  be 
made  the  basis  of  sermons  on  many  topics.  I 
desire,  however,  to  make  them  the  basis  of 
this  theme:  the  theology  of  the  educated  man 
or  woman  in  the  twentieth  century. 

Every  man  has  a  theology.  The  man  who 
thinks  at  all  thinks  of  his  relation  to  a  su- 
preme being.  What  am  I?  Whence  do  I 
come?  Where  am  I?  Whither  am  I  going? 


176        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

These  are  question  which  each  man  asks,  to 
which  the  answers,  if  found  at  all,  are  found 
in  theology.  The  revelations  of  the  past,  the 
intimations  of  the  future,  the  duties  of  the 
present  demand  that  one  who  thinks  at  all 
shall  think  of  his  relation  to  his  God.  Above 
all  others  the  college  man  and  woman  must 
think  on  these  problems.  Of  all  problems  they 
are  the  most  profound:  they  arouse  think- 
ing. Of  all  problems  they  are  the  most  com- 
plex: they  demand  analysis.  Of  all  problems 
they  are  the  most  comprehensive:  they 
quicken  the  highest  elements  of  being.  Man 
may  be  an  agnostic  in  positive  knowledge;  he 
cannot  be  an  agnostic  in  thought  upon  these 
ultimate  questions. 

What  shall  be  the  theology  of  the  educated 
man  of  the  new  century,  what  shall  he  believe, 
what  shall  he  not  believe,  what  may  he  be- 
lieve, what  must  he  believe  to  deserve  the 
name  of  Christian? 

The  two  points  of  the  ellipse  of  theological 
truth  are,  of  course,  God  and  man. 

Regarding  God,  man  will  believe  that  God 
is:  he  will  not  be  an  atheist.  He  will  believe 
that  God  is  one:  he  will  not  be  a  polytheist. 
He  will  believe  that  God  is  a  person,  not  a 
force:  he  will  not  be  a  deist.  He  will  believe 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       177 

that  God  is  the  being  behind  all :  the  Creator. 
He  will  believe  that  God  is  the  being  in  all: 
a  Providence.  He  will  believe  that  God  is 
the  being  before  and  after  all:  eternal  destiny. 
He  will  believe  in  spirit  controlling  matter: 
he  will  not  be  a  materialist.  He  will  believe 
in  the  separation  of  spirit  and  matter:  he  will 
not  be  a  pantheist. 

He  will  also  believe  that  God  has  mani- 
fested himself.  This  manifestation  of  God 
may  be  found  in  a  book  or  may  be  found 
in  a  person.  If  found  in  a  person,  he  will 
believe  that  this  manifestation  is  found 
in  Jesus  Christ.  He  may  or  he  may  not  be 
willing  to  accept  certain  doctrines  which  have 
long  been  taught,  but  he  will  believe  that  the 
coming  of  Christ  is  the  "  one  far  off  divine 
event "  toward  which  humanity  moves  and 
by  which  it  still  moves.  Without  discussing 
the  mysteries  of  the  two  natures  in  one  per- 
sonality, he  will  believe  that  in  Christ  is  seen 
the  perfect  man,  the  ideal  of  the  race,  toward 
which  the  race  is  ever  progressing.  His  cradle 
is  the  Bethlehem  where  are  born  eternal 
hopes;  his  cross  is  the  altar  on  which  are 
worthily  laid  humanity's  choicest  offerings  in 
love  and  gratitude.  If  the  superhuman  con- 
ception be  not  accepted,  his  sinless  perfection 


178       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

is  gratefully  recognized.  Christ  is  heard  as 
humanity's  prophet,  who  tells  and  foretells  all 
that  humanity  may  become  in  perfection. 
Christ  is  humanity's  high  priest,  who  dies 
himself  for  those  for  whom  he  prays.  Christ 
is  humanity's  king,  to  whom  humanity  exults 
to  be  in  subjection. 

The  educated  man  of  the  new  century  will 
believe  that  God  is  good,  that  He  loves  man. 
He  will  believe  that  God  is  of  all  power,  that 
He  can  help  man.  He  will  believe  that  man 
can  and  ought  to  love  God.  He  is  compelled 
to  believe  that  some  men  do  not  love  God. 
He  must  also  believe  that  disobedience  to  the 
laws  of  God  works  damage  to  himself.  He 
further  believes  that  obedience  to  the  laws  of 
God  results  in  betterment  to  himself  and  to  all. 
He  believes  that  nature  and  God  strive  with 
man  in  order  to  persuade  man  to  live  for  and 
to  love  the  best.  He  also  believes  that  man's 
own  conscience  urges  him  to  live  for  and  to 
love  the  best.  These  processes  may  be  called 
conversion  or  regeneration. 

The  educated  man  will  also  find  his  the- 
ology in  a  book  as  well  as  in  a  person.  The 
Bible  remains  as  the  great  book  of  religion 
and  of  theology.  Much  debate  about  the  Bible 
has  arisen  from  trying  to  find  in  the  Bible 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        179 

what  is  not  in  it  and  what  was  never  designed 
to  be  found  in  it.  It  is  not  a  text-book  in 
geology  or  astronomy.  It  is  not  a  text-book 
in  history.  It  is  a  book  of  religion  and  of 
ethics.  It  bears  its  own  authority  in  its  own 
utterances.  It  bears  witness  of  its  own  in- 
spirations in  the  uniqueness  of  its  teachings. 
Questions  of  method  of  inspiration,  questions 
of  lower  and  of  higher  criticism  do  not  touch 
the  essential  integrity  of  the  volume  as  the  one 
book  of  the  world  in  religion  and  ethics. 

Such  will  be  the  simple  content  of  the  theol- 
ogy of  the  educated  man  in  the  new  century. 
It  will  be  a  very  simple  theology.  It  will  re- 
late to  the  fundamental  doctrines  of  God's 
character  and  of  man's  nature  and  of  the  rela- 
tion existing  between  God  and  man.  All  of 
truth  will  minister  to  its  enrichment.  Biol- 
ogy, anthropology,  psychology,  philosophy, 
will  offer  their  contribution,  but  when  each 
science  has  done  its  utmost  for  the  enrichment 
of  theology  the  theology  itself  will  still  remain 
very  simple. 

More  important  than  the  content  of  the  be- 
lief, however,  is  the  method  or  condition, 
or  mood,  of  holding  it. 

The  educated  man  of  the  new  century  will 
hold  his  beliefs  on  the  ground  of  the  evidence 


180       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

presented  for  them.  This  evidence  will  make 
its  appeal  to  the  reason.  The  appeal  thus 
made  will  be  conclusive  and  supreme.  Alto- 
gether too  long  and  too  much  have  Chris- 
tianity and  theology  been  afraid  of  the  reason. 
The  reason,  what  does  it  do?  The  rea- 
son, rather,  what  does  it  not  do?  It 
is  the  supreme  product  of  nature  in  the  king- 
dom of  the  intellect.  It  is  the  supreme  prod- 
uct ^of  omnipotence  in  the  realm  of  the  intel- 
lect. The  chief  struggle  of  life  has  been  to 
create  a  brain.  The  development  has  pro- 
ceeded from  the  physical  to  the  cerebral.  As 
the  development  has  continued  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  cerebral  function  has  increased. 
The  reason  searches  for  the  truth,  and,  hav- 
ing found  what  seems  to  be  the  truth,  it  offers 
its  prize  to  the  heart  to  be  loved,  to  the  will 
to  be  chosen,  to  the  conscience  to  be  accepted 
or  obeyed.  The  reason  searches  for  the  truth, 
and  if  in  the  search  it  finds  what  seems  to  be 
the  false  it  discards  it  and  discards  it  because 
it  is  false.  The  apparent  conflict  between  rea- 
son and  revelation  is  one  of  the  saddest  of  con- 
flicts. Saddest  because  it  is  absolutely  un- 
necessary, and  saddest  also  because  of  the  de- 
vastation wrought.  What  shall  decide,  who 
shall  decide,  whether  what  offers  itself  as  a 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        181 

revelation  be  a  revelation  from  God,  or  a  rev- 
elation from  the  false  prophet?  What  shall 
decide,  who  shall  decide,  whether  the  revela- 
tion of  the  Koran  or  the  revelation  of  the 
Bible  be  true?  What  determines  the  genuine 
and  what  the  counterfeit?  What  decides 
whether  an  assumption  be  valid  or  invalid? 
Every  prophet  declares  himself  to  be  inspired. 
Who  shall  say  upon  whose  lips  rests  the  divine 
fire?  The  answer  to  be  given,  the  one  and  only 
answer  to  be  given,  is  in  the  reason  of  man. 
Reason,  you  never  can  have  too  much  of  it. 
Reason,  you  can  never  use  it  too  constantly, 
too  profoundly,  too  carefully,  too  accurately, 
too  reverently.  In  one  of  his  notebooks  Phil- 
lips Brooks  said :  "  The  Mohammedans  have 
the  golden  gate  into  the  mosque  of  Omar 
heavily  walled  up.  There  is  a  tradition  that  if 
ever  they  are  driven  out  of  possession  it  will 
be  by  Jews  or  Christians  entering  by  that 
gate.  Like  this  is  the  way  in  which  many 
Christians,  feeling  that  attacks  upon  religion 
are  likeliest  to  come  upon  the  side  of  reason, 
instead  of  simply  arming  themselves  on  that 
side  and  keeping  watch  that  the  gateway  be 
used  only  for  its  proper  passers,  wall  it  up 
altogether  and  refuse  to  reason  at  all  about 
their  faith." 


182       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

Reason  demands  the  respect  which  truth, 
goodness,  righteousness  demand.  Rational- 
ism is  not  an  excess  of  reason,  not  an  "  ism  " 
of  reason,  but  rationalism  is  an  irrational  use 
of  reason,  an  irrational  application  of  its  own 
forces. 

In  your  use  of  reason  in  theology  you  will 
differentiate  the  values  in  beliefs  and  also 
the  evidences  for  beliefs.  The  belief,  for  in- 
stance in  the  personality  of  God,  is  more  pre- 
cious than  the  belief  touching  His  government 
of  the  world.  The  evidence  that  He  is  a  person 
is  stronger  than  the  evidence  of  His  providence. 
The  truth  that  man  owes  to  God  certain  duties 
and  the  evidence  for  this  truth  are  more  im- 
portant than  the  truth  that  man  was  created 
with  a  nature  having  evil  appetites.  The  truth 
that  man  is  a  sinner,  and  the  evidence  for  this 
truth,  are  more  clear  than  any  theory  of  future 
retribution.  Truths  in  theology  do  not  lie  as 
lies  the  sod  of  the  prairie,  as  a  level,  either 
dead  or  living,  but  truths  in  theology  lie  as 
the  American  continent,  great  ranges  of  di- 
vine teachings,  lifting  their  mighty  forces  and 
hiding  themselves  in  the  unknown,  between 
which  rest  the  broad  prairies  of  simple  truths, 
bearing  hope,  strength,  life  unto  all. 

But  though  the  reason  originates,  declares, 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        183 

and  holds  beliefs,  I  should  also  say  that  many 
beliefs  have  a  distinct  relation  to  the  heart. 
Beliefs  are  not  always  clear,  orderly,  articu- 
late; like  the  sun,  they  have  a  penumbra. 
Their  cradle  often  is  found  in  the  heart,  rather 
than  in  the  intellect.  They  begin  rather  as 
feelings  than  as  assurances.  They  come  from 
some  unknown  source,  like  the  daylight,  long 
before  the  rising  of  the  sun.  The  heart  has 
its  reasons,  says  Pascal,  of  which  the  reason 
knows  not.  They  are  vague,  shadowy  forms, 
flitting  about  on  the  horizon  of  the  emotions 
and  understanding.  They  are  akin  to  those 
instinctive  senses  which  animals  often  possess 
in  the  presence  of  dangers  which  are  unseen 
and  unheard  but  not  unfelt.  They  are  akin  to 
those  intimations  of  wrong  which  Scott,  in 
Peveril  of  the  Peak,  describes  as  belonging  to 
his  heroine.  Such  beliefs  are  rather  trailing 
clouds  which  may  be  of  glory  or  not,  but  they 
are  certainly  not  sunlight.  Such  beliefs 
cradled  in  the  feelings  one  is  to  cherish.  One 
is  not  to  make  haste  to  state  them  in  the  terms 
of  the  intellect,  or  in  the  terms  of  the  will,  or 
in  the  terms  of  the  conscience.  Lying  in  the 
heart  for  a  time,  they  come  to  possess  a  capac- 
ity for  growth  and  for  development.  Beliefs 
that  pass  early  into  the  intellectual  realm  are 


184       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

in  peril  of  becoming  fixed,  stratified,  petrified. 
That  acute  political  philosopher,  Sir  Henry 
Sumner  Maine,  says:  "When  primitive  law 
has  once  been  embodied  in  a  code,  there  is  an 
end  to  what  may  be  called  its  spontaneous  de- 
velopment." As  long  as  one  can  keep  his 
belief  in  his  heart,  as  long  as  he  can  hold 
his  beliefs  not  as  beliefs,  but  as  hypotheses, 
not  as  hypotheses,  but  as  fancies,  without 
being  fanciful,  as  long  as  one  can  hold 
his  beliefs  as  sentiments  without  being  senti- 
mental, so  long  are  these  beliefs  nourished 
into  a  life,  fair,  large,  developing.  Not  too 
long,  however,  are  these  beliefs  to  be  tended 
and  watched  in  the  cradle  of  the  heart.  At 
last  they  are  to  be  turned  over  from  the  nurse 
of  the  heart  to  the  trainer  of  the  reason.  He, 
the  disciplinarian  of  the  judgment,  shall  give 
to  them  orderliness,  form,  relationship,  com- 
pleteness. 

One  is  also  ever  to  hold  his  beliefs  in  tolera- 
tion for  the  beliefs  of  other  men.  Political 
toleration  we  have  learned ;  theological  tolera- 
tion we  are  learning.  The  secret  of  toleration 
is  not  indifference;  the  secret  of  toleration  is 
recognition  and  appreciation.  The  eagerness 
that  each  man  shall  have  a  belief,  the  recogni- 
tion of  the  right  of  each  man  to  hold  his  be- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        186 

lief,  and  the  appreciation  of  the  worthiness  of 
his  beliefs,  these  represent  toleration.  I  go 
to  India,  where  Jacob  Chamberlain  and  Jones, 
and  other  sons  of  the  college,  have  labored 
many  years  in  noblest  service.  I  go  to  India 
to  tell  this  ancient  people  about  what  seems  to 
me  to  be  the  best  life,  and  about  the  wisest 
methods  for  living  the  best  life.  I  find  among 
this  people  beliefs  long  held  which  seem  to 
me  to  be  false.  What  shall  I  do?  Shall  I  at 
once  say:  "  Your  truths  are  lies.  Your  theol- 
ogies are  false.  Your  ethics  is  base."  Rather 
shall  I  not  say :  "  It  is  well  for  you  to  believe, 
but  the  truth  only  is  worthy  of  your  belief. 
Is  what  you  believe  the  truth?  Is  it  the  whole 
truth?  Is  it  a  partial  truth?  If  it  be  a  partial 
truth,  the  partial  error  discard,  the  partial 
truth  accept.  Let  me  tell  you  what  seems  to 
be  a  truth,  holier,  richer,  more  truthful  truth 
than  what  you  accept."  Such  a  holding  and 
such  a  declaring  of  your  truth,  such  a  vision 
and  such  a  message,  represent  a  toleration  in 
which  your  truth  and  you  who  hold  it  are  to 
live. 

You  are  also  to  hold  your  simple  theology 
in  the  mood  of  expectancy.  Your  theology 
is  not  a  product  manufactured,  finished;  it  is 
rather  a  plant,  rooting  itself  in  the  ground  of 


186       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

your  convictions,  putting  forth  new  branches 
of  aspirations,  bearing  blossoms  and  fruit  of 
which  once  you  had  no  intimation.  Your  be- 
lief is  to  find  its  type,  not  in  the  Greek  temple, 
orderly,  regular,  complete,  neither  too  much 
nor  too  little,  in  which  each  stone  is  fitted  for 
every  other,  wherein  roof  and  foundation  and 
all  that  rests  between  could  not  be  anything 
else  than  it  is.  Your  belief  is  rather  to  find 
its  type  in  the  Gothic  cathedral,  in  which  arch 
and  spire  and  vaulted  roof,  bay  and  buttress, 
spring  up  and  out  into  the  light  and  the  shade, 
the  openness  and  the  blindness  of  the  forest, 
giving  assurances  of  progress  and  of  advance- 
ment of  which  you  have  never  dreamed.  Of 
course,  new  truth  is  to  break  forth  from  God's 
word  and  from  God's  world.  The  son  of  a 
distinguished  American,  himself  conspicuous 
and  able,  said  to  me  that  among  his  father's 
papers  he  found  a  slip  on  which  were  written 
these  words:  "The  Old  Testament  is  the 
revelation  of  God  the  Father.  The  New  Testa- 
ment is  the  revelation  of  God  the  Son.  Will 
there  be  a  revelation  of  God  the  Holy  Ghost?  " 
No  third  book  may  descend  from  the  sky,  but 
man's  spirit,  giving  itself  to  books  already 
written,  man's  mind  interpreting  the  phe- 
nomena of  life,  is  a  revelation  of  God  the  Holy 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        187 

Ghost.  God  is  made  a  being  more  real  and 
more  vital  to  every  man  by  reason  of  the 
discoveries  of  natural  science.  Man,  there- 
fore, is  still  to  keep  his  face  toward  the  East. 
New  risings  of  old  suns  of  truth  are  to  be, 
new  risings  of  new  suns  of  truth  are  to  be 
expected  and  hoped  for.  Even  in  your  nights 
and  because  of  your  nights  new  stars  of  reve- 
lation are  to  roll  within  the  circle  of  your 
vision. 

Beliefs  thus  held  in  reason,  in  heart,  in  toler- 
ance and  expectancy  come  to  take  a  normal 
and  natural  place  in  your  character  and  life. 
They  are,  like  the  color  of  your  eyes,  char- 
acteristic. They,  like  your  face  and  form,  be- 
long to  you.  In  them  is  nothing  foreign,  ex- 
traneous, unnatural.  They  are  like  the  food 
you  eat,  nourishing;  they  are  like  the  gym- 
nastics you  take,  strengthening;  they  are  like 
the  clothes  you  wear,  fitness.  In  them  you 
live,  for  them  you  are  willing  to  die,  for  with- 
out them  you  could  not  live  at  all. 

What  shall  be  the  effect  of  such  a  theology 
thus  held  on  the  individual  and  on  the  com- 
munity? 

A  definite  system  of  theology  strongly  held 
tends  to  make  a  strong  people.  Both  as  cause 
and  result  a  system  of  theology  strongly  held 


188       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

makes  a  strong  people.  The  21,000  persons 
who  came  to  what  we  now  call  New  England 
before  the  year  1640  were  a  race  distinguished 
by  their  intellectual  power  and  their  moral 
earnestness.  In  them  was  found  as  large  a 
proportion  of  college-bred  men  as  could  be 
found  in  a  population  of  similar  size  in  the 
world.  "  The  ashes  of  a  hard  student,  a  good 
scholar  and  a  great  Christian/'  was  the  epi- 
taph written  on  the  tombstone  of  a  young 
preacher,  dead  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  "  If 
God  make  thee  a  good  Christian  and  a  good 
scholar,  thou  hast  all  that  thy  mother  ever 
asked  for  thee,"  said  a  high-spirited  New 
England  woman  to  her  child.  Politics,  edu- 
cation, all  work,  all  life,  were  touched  with 
the  spirit  of  earnestness  and  of  piety.  As  has 
said  a  great  scholar,  himself  dead  this  year: 
"  For  the  first  time,  it  may  be,  in  the  history 
of  the  world,  these  people  brought  together 
the  subtle  brain  of  the  metaphysician  and  the 
glowing  heart  of  the  fanatic;  and  they  flung 
both  vehemently  into  the  service  of  religion. 
Never  were  men  more  logical  or  self-con- 
sistent, in  theory  and  in  practice.  Religion, 
they  said,  was  the  chief  thing;  they  meant  it; 
they  acted  upon  it.  They  did  not  attempt  to 
combine  the  sacred  and  the  secular;  they  sim- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        189 

ply  abolished  the  secular,  and  left  only  the 
sacred.  The  state  became  the  church;  the 
king,  a  priest;  politics,  a  department  of  theol- 
ogy; citizenship,  the  privilege  of  those  only 
who  had  received  baptism  and  the  Lord's  sup- 
per." 

Can  a  system  of  religious  belief  which  has 
no  map  of  the  divine  mind,  which  argues 
about  the  reality  of  Providence,  and  which 
may  declare  that  the  chief  value  of  prayer  is 
subjective,  can  a  system  of  religious  beliefs 
which  holds  firmly  and  simply  a  few  great 
principles  have  an  effect  equally  impressive, 
formative,  inspiring,  as  the  Puritan  theology 
of  New  England  of  two  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago?  At  once  let  me  say  I  do  believe 
that  a  theology  simple,  fundamental,  com- 
posed of  a  few  great  principles,  may  have  an 
effect  equally  impressive,  equally  significant, 
and  more  enduring. 

Two  results,  at  least,  a  simple  theology 
should  work  among  men.  One  is,  an  in- 
crease of  the  sense  of  human  brotherhood. 
Simple  beliefs  represent  the  elements  in  which 
all  are  able  to  unite.  Simple  beliefs  are  like 
the  air,  which  all  breathe,  the  earth  on  which 
all  walk,  the  sun  whence  all  draw  light  and 
warmth.  These  elemental  beliefs  are  the  great 


190        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

rock  foundation  of  humanity.  Beneath  the 
changing  of  seasons  and  of  climate  and  of  soil, 
of  different  intellectual  relations,  they  bind 
the  world  of  man  together  into  a  single 
brotherhood.  Such  a  sense  of  simple  and 
of  single  brotherhood  is  the  great  need  of  hu- 
manity. This  need  is  rilled  by  loyalty  to 
these  simple  standards.  Such  a  need  is  also 
in  part  being  filled  by  the  great  industrial 
organizations  of  society.  These  organizations 
are  uniting  and  not  disintegrating  forces.  They 
are  not  setting  capital  against  labor  or  labor 
against  capital;  they  are  uniting  capital  with 
capital;  labor  with  labor,  and  also  labor  and 
capital  with  each  other.  Reinforcement  of  the 
uniting  principle  of  a  simple  theology  is  found 
in  the  unifying  method  of  modern  industrial 
expansion. 

To  this  industrial  age  Christianity  comes 
offering  a  simple  faith,  speaking  an  in- 
spiring message,  and  giving  a  clear  com- 
mand of  love.  To  an  age  in  which  the  world 
daily  becomes  smaller  and  more  compact 
Christianity  comes  and  offers  a  creed  written 
in  principles  and  not  in  methods.  To  an  age 
eager  for  results  Christianity  comes  and  offers 
means  open  to  all  for  winning  the  finest  char- 
acter. To  an  age  whose  chief  characteristic 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        191 

is  force,  the  creating  and  conveying  of  force, 
whose  symbol  is  an  electric  spark,  Christian- 
ity comes  and  preaches  a  gospel  of  service  for 
and  through  all.  The  simple  beliefs  of  this 
age  make  for  the  unity  of  man,  making  for 
the  unity  of  man  they  make  for  the  strength, 
wisdom,  triumph  of  manhood. 

A  simple  belief,  moreover,  makes  a  mightier 
impression  on  the  individual.  If  it  unite  all 
into  one  brotherhood,  it  tends  to  unite  all  the 
parts  of  one's  individual  being  into  an  organ 
of  power  more  powerful.  A  simple  belief  can 
be  more  easily  grasped;  it,  therefore,  more 
easily  grasps  and  controls  man.  A  simple 
belief  the  heart  more  easily  appreciates;  there- 
fore, it  can  more  easily  qualify  and  impress  the 
heart. 

A  simple  belief  is  a  clear  call  to  the 
will;  therefore,  the  will  accepts  a  simple  belief 
the  more  promptly.  The  divorce  between 
morals  and  religion  a  simple  belief  bridges 
over.  For  the  belief  is  real  and  vital ;  it  carries 
the  reality  of  ethics  into  religion,  it  carries 
the  power  of  religion  into  ethics.  A  simple 
belief  gives  to  labor  for  man,  for  man  fallen, 
for  man  fallen  in  the  dark,  a  motive  born  not 
simply  of  the  dreadfulness  of  the  fate  which 
awaits  him,  but  also  a  motive  born  of  the  ab- 


192       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

solute  needs  of  the  believer's  and  laborer's  own 
condition  and  character.  "  The  belief  that 
means  so  much  to  me,"  he  cries,  "  I  must  give 
unto  others  also." 

A  theology,  therefore,  which  unites  all  men 
and  which  impresses  each  man  with  its  power 
and  worth  must  be  a  theology  which  will  make 
for  the  betterment  of  the  race.  In  the  three 
hundred  years  following  the  ascension  of 
Christ  the  Roman  empire  became  a  Christian 
empire.  The  remark  of  Julian,  uttered  in  the 
bitterness  of  his  broken  heart,  "  Galileean, 
thou  hast  conquered,"  was  the  absolute  truth. 
One  reason  of  the  swift  conquest  of  the  Ro- 
man world  lies  in  the  simplicity  of  the  faith  of 
the  conquerors.  A  simple  faith  is  again  to 
conquer  the  world.  It  shall  transmute  so- 
ciety into  a  redeemed  community,  as  it  has 
transformed  the  individual.  It  shall  make  the 
corporation  the  greatest  power  for  righteous- 
ness, as  it  has  blessed  the  individual  merchant 
and  mechanic.  It  shall  drive  out  the  still  vices, 
which  are  the  worst,  from  the  race,  as  it  has 
restrained  disorder,  protected  property  and 
shielded  life.  It  shall  make  the  obligation  of 
the  officer,  or  of  the  community,  no  less  bind- 
ing than  the  obligations  of  the  private  cit- 
izen. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        193 

In  a  largeness  of  endeavor  for  society  which 
shall  not  neglect  the  individual,  in  an  intensity 
of  service  for  the  individual  which  shall  not  al- 
low society  to  suffer,  in  a  height  of  purpose  so 
high  that  its  ends  can  be  accomplished  only  in 
infinite  ages,  in  an  immediateness  of  duty 
which  neglects  no  detail,  man  shall  take  up 
his  work,  with  a  simple  faith  in  his  God  and  a 
simple  faith  in  himself.  The  doing  of  such 
work  demands,  among  many  other  virtues,  the 
virtue  of  patience.  God  works  and  man  should 
be  content  to  work  as  if  he  had  a  whole  eter- 
nity to  work  in.  Through  this  work  a  divine 
humanity  is  to  be;  as  sure  as  the  sun  shines 
and  the  tides  flow,  so  sure  is  humanity  again 
to  become  divine.  The  Christ  may  or  may 
not  reappear  in  his  single  person,  but  the 
Christ  is  to  come  back  in  the  person  of  a 
divine  and  glorified  humanity.  You  may  say, 
in  Locksley  Hall: 

"  Not  in  vain  the  distance  beacons.  Forward,  for- 
ward let  us  range. 

Let  the  great  world  spin  forever  down  the  ringing 
grooves  of  change. 

"  Thro'  the  shadow  of  the  globe  we  sweep  into  the 

younger  day; 
Better  fifty  years  of  Europe  than  a  cycle  of  Cathay, 


194       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

44  Mother  Age  (for  mine  I  know  not)  help  me  as  when 
life  begun; 

Rift  the  hills,  and  roll  the  waters,  flash  the  light- 
nings, weigh  the  sun " 

Or  you  may  say  in  Locksley  Hall,  Sixty 
Years  After : 

"  Felt  within  us  as  ourselves,  the  powers  of  good,  the 

powers  of  ill, 
Strowing  balm,  or  shedding  poison  in  the  fountains 

of  the  will. 

"  Follow  you  the  star  that  lights  a  desert  pathway, 

yours  or  mine. 
Forward,  till  you  see  the  highest  human  nature  is 

divine. 

"  Follow  light,  and  do  the  right— for  man  can  half 

control  his  doom — 
Till  you  find  the  deathless  angel  seated  in  the  vacant 

tomb. 

44  Forward,  let  the  stormy  moment  fly  and  mingle 

with  the  past. 
I  that  loathed,  have  come  to  love  him. 

Love  will  conquer  at  the  last." 

Members  of  the  graduating  classes :  As  you 
rise  and  stand  it  is  not  one  before  whom  you 
stand;  it  is  not  one  who  speaks  to  you;  it  is 
the  scores  of  teachers  and  officers  to  whom 
you  have  held  relations  these  years  before 
whom  you  stand,  and  it  is  for  them  that  one 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        195 

voice  speaks.  No  wish  have  we  had,  no  at- 
tempt have  we  made,  to  give  you  beliefs.  No 
wish  have  we  had,  no  attempt  have  we  made, 
to  put  certain  shibboleths  upon  your  lips; 
rather  both  our  wish  and  our  endeavor  have 
been  so  to  enrich,  so  to  inspire,  so  to  guide, 
so  to  help  that  you  would  be  able  and  eager 
to  form  and  to  hold  right  beliefs  for  yourself, 
so  that  you  would  be  able  and  eager  to  affirm 
and  to  sing  your  own  rallying  cries  and  clear 
calls  of  duty.  Life,  though  related  to  belief, 
is  far  more  than  belief.  Our  wish  has  been 
to  help  you  to  live  well,  as  well  as  to  believe 
truthfully. 

Therefore,  with  confidence  in  the  reason, 
with  faith  in  the  heart  of  man,  in  tolerance 
for  all,  in  patient  and  exultant  expectancy, 
I  ask  you  to  believe  and  to  live.  Your  simple 
belief  thus  believed,  your  simple  life  thus  lived, 
will  give  to  you  breadth  without  thinness  and 
depth  without  narrowness.  You  shall  thus  go 
on  toward  a  greatness  which  is  not  bigness,  in 
a  strength  which  shall  be  gentle  because  it  is 
so  strong,  and  unto  a  triumph  of  character  so 
triumphant  that  it  shall  be  unconscious  of  its 
victories. 

Life  may  or  may  not  withhold  its  prizes ;  my 
care  is  small,  but  let  not  life  withhold  itself 


196       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

from  you,  let  not  you  withhold  yourselves 
from  life.  Thus  shall  life  become  to  you  like 
the  seventy-five  years  of  the  old  college,  a  sign 
not  of  the  age  of  age,  but  a  sign  of  the  youth 
of  age,  which,  as  it  lengthens,  shall  broaden, 
deepen,  heighten,  and  which  shall,  in  the  prog- 
ress of  time,  become  and  be  eternal  youth. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       197 


XIII 

EDUCATION  THE   PERFECTION   OF 

MAN 

"  For  instruction  in  righteousness :  That  the  man 
of  God  may  be  perfect/' — 2  Timothy  iii.  16,  17. 

THE  family,  the  church,  the  government, 
the  book,  the  newspaper,  society,  and 
the  university — these  are  the  forms  in 
which  humanity  organizes  itself.  Certain  of 
these  forms  have  lost,  certain  of  these  forms 
have  gained,  in  influence  in  the  last  decade  and 
years.  But  whichever  of  them  have  lost  or 
whichever  of  them  have  gained,  it  is  clear,  that 
in  the  last  decades  the  university  has  gained. 
In  no  year  has  the  gain  of  the  higher  educa- 
tion been  so  great  as  in  the  year  now  clos- 
ing. Not  to  speak  of  the  numberless  small  sums 
given  to  education,  the  confirmation  of  the 
Stanford  foundation,  the  donation  of  $10,000,- 
ooo  for  research  made  by  Mr.  Carnegie,  and 
the  bequest  of  Cecil  Rhodes  represents  more 
than  $50,000,000  given  for  the  higher  educa- 
tion in  a  twelve-month.  Such  giving  the  world 


198        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

has  never  seen.  When  fifty  years  ago  Joshua 
Bates  gave  $50,000  for  the  Boston  Public 
Library,  the  endowment  was  heralded  far  more 
than  the  giving  of  fifty  $50,000  libraries  by 
Andrew  Carnegie.  When  Mr.  Lawrence  gave 
$50,000  to  endow  a  scientific  school  bearing  his 
name,  it  was  said  to  be  the  largest  sum  ever 
given  at  one  time  by  any  man  for  the  higher 
education.  But  the  academic  year  now  clos- 
ing has  seen  gifts  of  more  than  $50,000,000 
from  only  three  individuals,  and  as  many  more 
millions  from  many  individuals,  all  for  the 
higher  education.  These  gifts  are  for  the 
present  purpose  mainly  significant  as  signs, 
rather  than  as  causes  or  as  results,  of  the  ad- 
vancing force  which  education  and  espe- 
cially the  higher  education  holds  among 
the  progressive  powers  of  civilization.  Is  it 
too  much  to  say  that  education  has  become 
the  most  dominant  force  in  human  affairs? 
Is  it  not  true  that  the  university  represents 
the  whole  educational  process  by  which  hu- 
manity is  lifting  itself  into  nobler  domains  and 
wider  relationships?  For  the  university  has 
come  to  stand  in  the  modern  life  for  what  the 
sense  of  beauty  signified  in  Greece,  what  force 
signified  in  Rome,  for  what  holiness  signified 
in  Jerusalem,  and  for  what  liberty  signified 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        199 

in  the  Anglo-Saxon  capital.  Education  has 
become  regnant  and  supreme. 

If  this  interpretation  be  just,  the  conclusion 
is  inevitable  that  education  should  be  pre- 
pared to  assume  a  worthy  and  great  leader- 
ship. Therefore  the  question  emerges  what 
kind  of  an  education  should  an  education  which 
takes  to  itself  great  leadership  be?  What  are 
its  marks,  its  elements,  its  qualities,  its  char- 
acteristics? In  the  answer  to  this  question  I 
shall,  through  your  permission,  use  the  time 
that  we  are  together  to-night. 

(i)  An  education  which  is  capable  of  being 
the  leading  force  in  human  society  should  be 
broad.  It  should  be  a  whole  education.  It 
should  touch  every  part  of  the  individual.  To 
the  five-fold  being  of  every  man  it  should 
address  itself. 

An  education  which  is  capable  of  being 
the  leading  force  in  society  will  contain  as  its 
primary  element  the  intellectual.  To  the 
intellect  it  will  first  appeal.  Education  is 
to  teach  the  individual  to  see  the  truth  clearly, 
to  value  truth  accurately,  and  to  infer  new 
truth  from  old  truth  with  justice.  Education 
is  to  open  the  judgment,  to  enlarge  the  under- 
standing, to  ennoble  the  reason.  Education  is 
to  transmute  knowledge  into  thought  and 


200       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

thought  into  wisdom.  Primary  in  point  of 
time,  and  not  less  primary  in  point  of  impor- 
tance, is  the  place  of  the  intellect.  But  the 
university  will  not,  of  course,  be  content  with 
the  training  of  the  intellect.  Man  is  or  has 
a  heart.  The  appetite,  the  desires,  the  affec- 
tions, have  a  place  in  the  training  of  the  whole 
man.  The  university  will  not  decline  to  con- 
sider the  heart  as  an  essential  part  of  man's 
being.  The  central  and  comprehensive  ele- 
ment of  the  heart  is  what  is  called  love. 
This  principle,  from  which  springs  the 
greatest  poems,  is  the  principle  which  edu- 
cation should  consider.  Dante's  heaven  is 
love,  Dante's  hell  is  hate.  The  height  of 
Goethe's  drama  is  reached  when  the  trans- 
mutation of  animal  passion  into  pure  affection 
is  complete.  "  All's  love,  all's  law,  all's  love," 
sings  Browning.  The  finest  lines  which 
Tennyson  believed  he  ever  sung  are  those 
which  interpret  love  as  life's  supreme  force. 

The  heart  whose  power  and  place  are  tp 
give  love  and  to  receive  love  that  is  so  com- 
prehensive, so  vital,  so  infinite,  is  to  be  trained, 
enriched,  strengthened  by  the  worthiest  educa- 
tion. 

In  the  breadth  of  training  which  an  educa- 
tion worthy  of  leadership  is  to  give,  the  will  of 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        201 

the  individual  is  to  receive  discipline.  Leader- 
ship represents  power,  and  power  is  a  function 
of  the  will,  and  will  is  the  faculty  of  power. 
Our  first  ideas  of  power  may  be  derived  from 
the  exercise  of  the  will.  The  will  is  the  real 
executive,  the  genuine  administrator,  the  cre- 
ative master.  To  the  making  of  such  a  char- 
acter the  university  is  to  give  itself.  The  uni- 
versity is  not  to  give  itself  simply  to  the  mak- 
ing of  college  dons.  Take  up  Dean  Burgon's 
"  Lives  of  Twelve  Good  Men,"  and  you  read 
of  Routh,  "the  learned  divine;"  of  Rose,  the 
"  restorer  of  the  old  paths;  "  of  Mariott,  "  the 
man  of  saintly  life ; "  of  Cotton,  "  the  humble 
Christian;"  of  Greswell,  "the  faithful  stew- 
ard ; "  of  Higgins,  "  the  good  layman," 
and  others.  It  is  well  to  be  a  learned 
divine,  a  restorer  of  the  old  paths,  a  man 
of  saintly  life,  a  humble  Christian,  a  faith- 
ful steward,  a  good  layman,  but  men  of 
these  types  are  not  the  men  of  master- 
ful, dominant  will.  This  age  is  an  age  of  men 
of  will.  Its  great  men  are  the  men  who  do. 
Its  most  conspicuous  representatives  are  the 
executives.  Its  most  popular  poet  is  the  poet 
of  power.  The  university  is  to  train  the  func- 
tion of  power — the  will. 
In  the  training  of  the  whole  man  education 


202       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

is  not  to  neglect  what  is  called  by  an  awkward 
phrase,  the  aesthetic  faculty.  This  faculty  is  to 
cause  the  individual  to  appreciate  the  beautiful, 
the  grand,  the  sublime,  the  majestic.  The  Ro- 
man arch  ever  bends  over  us  in  the  sky,  the 
Gothic  arch  is  pictured  in  every  leaf,  but  the 
eye  and  the  mind  look  at  each  without  seeing 
or  appreciating  either  the  significance  of  the 
infinite,  or  the  oneness  of  creation.  The 
spaces  of  the  air,  the  reaches  of  the  ocean,  the 
silence  of  time,  the  action  or  interaction  of 
forces  signify  great  principles.  But  it  is  only 
the  heart  that  is  open,  the  mind  that  is  re- 
ceptive which  can  receive  the  great  lessons 
of  these  existences.  The  university  in  order 
to  give  a  worthy  education  must  teach  an 
appreciation  of  the  beautiful. 

But  education  also  is  to  make  its  appeal  to 
the  conscience.  Moral  phenomena  are  life's 
real  phenomena.  If  the  intellect  is  concerned 
with  the  true,  the  will  with  the  good,  the 
aesthetic  faculty  with  the  beautiful,  the  con- 
science is  concerned  with  the  right.  It  is  sig- 
nificant that  the  two  most  conspicuous  edu- 
cators of  the  middle  part  of  the  last  century 
in  the  English-speaking  world  laid  particular 
emphasis  upon  the  moral  element  of  education. 
Dr.  Arnold  once  said  it  was  not  necessary  that 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        203 

Rugby  should  be  a  school  of  a  certain  num- 
ber of  students,  but  it  was  necessary  that  it 
should  be  a  school  of  gentlemen.  Horace 
Mann  caused  to  be  put  into  the  diplomas 
which  were  given  to  the  graduates  of  Antioch 
College  the  phrases,  "  In  consideration  of  the 
proficiency  you  have  made  in  the  liberal  arts 
and  sciences;  in  further  consideration  also  of 
the  reputable  character  you  have  here  main- 
tained, and  the  exemplary  life  you  have  here 
led."  The  wish  is  expressed  that  you  "  may  so 
comport  yourselves  on  the  great  mission  of  life 
on  which  you  are  now  about  to  enter,  that  you 
may  be  ornaments  to  your  country,  blessings 
to  mankind,  and  faithful  servants  of  Almighty 
God."  The  Hebrew  idea  of  education  as  holi- 
ness is  still  regnant.  The  Greek  idea  of  moral 
excellence  is  still  insistent.  The  Roman  idea 
of  duty,  ofikium,  is  still  emphatic.  Our  litera- 
ture is  great  because  it  is  a  literature  that 
emphasizes  duty  and  righteousness.  No 
literature  in  all  the  world  embodies  moral  ex- 
cellence as  does  our  own.  Education  to  be- 
come a  worthy  leader  must  use  the  moral  veri- 
ties. 

Therefore  I  say  that  if  education  is  to  be 
a  worthy  force  dominating  human  affairs,  it 
must  be  a  broad  education.  It  is  to  train  the 


204        A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

intellect  to  think  truly,  the  heart  to  feel  power- 
fully, the  will  to  choose  justly,  the  aesthetic 
faculty  to  appreciate  fittingly,  and  the  con- 
science to  do  rightly.  It  is  to  train  the  whole 
man.  It  is  to  take  upon  itself  a  love  which 
dominates,  an  art  which  symbolizes,  a  re- 
ligion which  the  church  enriches  and  ennobles, 
a  knowledge  which  the  book  represents,  a  hu- 
man relation  with  the  government  types,  and 
a  culture  which  society  promotes.  It  is  in- 
deed to  be  a  broad  education. 

(2)  But  an  education  which  is  designed 
to  lead  humanity  is  to  be  a  social  education. 
It  is  to  be  concerned,  not  only  with  all  there  is 
in  man,  but  also  to  be  concerned  with  all  men. 
It  is  to  be  missionary  in  motive  and  outlook. 
What  is  called  secondary  education  has  be- 
come compulsory.  Each  child  in  the  State 
shall  go  to  school  so  many  weeks  in  each  year. 
The  university  should  become  compulsory,  not 
so  made  by  the  State,  but  by  its  might,  large- 
ness, helping  and  blessing  all  men.  The  old 
church  of  the  New  England  hill-top  stood  forth 
in  the  midst  of  winter,  triumphant,  cold,  self- 
contained;  in  summer  heat  it  stood  forth  bold, 
bare,  bald.  Such  is  not  the  condition  of  the 
modern  university  as  a  human  force.  It  is 
rather  to  be  like  the  summer,  shedding  forth 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        205 

light  and  heat  into  every  part.  It  is  to  be  like 
gravitation,  pervasive.  Of  course,  it  is  not  to 
be  assumed  that  every  man  will  wish  to  be 
educated.  No  heathen  nation  ever  wishes  to 
be  a  Christian  nation.  The  work  of  the  mis- 
sionary is  to  create  a  wish,  to  cause  a  need. 
One  of  the  works  of  the  university  is  to  create 
a  desire  for  education.  Its  work  is  to  make 
boys  and  girls  wish  to  come  to  college.  The 
Oxford  of  Gibbon  has  forever  passed  away. 
You  recall  his  description.  "  I  spent  four- 
teen months  at  Magdalen  College;  they  proved 
the  fourteen  months  the  most  idle  and  un- 
profitable of  my  whole  life."  The  colleges  of 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  were  founded  in  an 
age  of  darkness  and  of  barbarous  sciences,  and 
they  are  still  tainted  with  the  conditions  of 
their  origin.  The  college  is  to  give  itself  with 
zeal  and  earnestness  and  enthusiasm  to  the  edu- 
cating of  men.  It  must  call  men  unto  itself,  it 
must  go  unto  men.  The  university  must  be  ex- 
tension. You  recall  what  Bradford  says  of 
the  motive  of  the  Pilgrims.  Among  the  last 
reasons  which  he  gives  for  the  coming  of  the 
Mayflower  band,  and  not  the  least,  was  the 
great  hope  and  inward  zeal  that  they  had  for 
laying  some  great  foundation,  or,  at  least,  mak- 
ing some  way  thereunto  for  propagating  and 


206       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

advancing  the  kingdom  of  Christ  in  these  re- 
mote parts  of  the  world.  In  the  university 
the  pilgrim  motive  must  dominate.  The  uni- 
versity is  to  be  the  Mayflower  bearing  seeds  of 
the  new  life  to  the  old  world. 

(3)  The  university  to  become  a  worthy 
leader  of  civilzation  is  not  simply  to  bear  in 
mind  a  conception  of  education  touching  the 
individual  and  touching  all  men.  The  uni- 
versity is  also  to  know  that  its  power  lies  in 
men  of  power.  The  library  is  sometimes 
called  the  laboratory  of  laboratories.  And  the 
laboratory  is  sometimes  called  the  most  im- 
portant material  element  of  the  university. 
But  do  not  forget  that  Athens  had  no  library 
until  the  time  of  Hadrian,  and  do  not  forget 
that  Athens  had  her  Plato  and  Aristotle  and 
Demosthenes,  and  Pericles.  Athens  also  had 
her  Sophists,  and  Mr.  Grote  says  that  the 
Sophists  had  nothing  to  commend  them  ex- 
cept their  superior  knowledge  and  intellectual 
fame  combined  with  an  imposing  personality. 
I  do  not  forget  that  Oxford  had  no  library  un- 
til recent  years, — the  Bodleian  is  soon  to  ob- 
serve its  ter-centenary, — and  none  to-day  that 
is  worthy.  But  Oxford  has  had  great  voices 
and  great  souls.  "What  is  your  greatest 
work,"  was  once  asked  of  the  elder  Agassiz. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        207 

"  The  training  of  three  men/'  was  his  answer. 
"  What  is  your  greatest  discovery/'  was  asked 
of  Sir  Humphry  Davy.  "  Faraday ,"  was  the 
answer.  The  call  for  great  men  in  the  college 
and  in  the  university  is  the  unceasing  call. 
Commerce  cries  out  for  men  great  in  power 
of  organization.  The  university  demands 
men  great  in  thought,  for  the  intellect;  mighty 
in  love,  for  the  heart;  absolute  in  the  right, 
for  the  conscience;  beautiful  in  character  and 
omnipotent  in  a  righteous  will.  The  college 
wants  and  must  have  great  men.  An  Ameri- 
can founding  Robert  College  on  the  Bos- 
porus, writing  of  his  own  college  on  the  day  of 
graduation,  exclaims :  "  Farewell,  Bowdoin 
College,  farewell  beloved  classmates  of  1834. 
Professors  Cleveland,  Upham,  Newman, 
Smythe,  Packard,  and  Longfellow,  every  name 
excites  emotions  of  gratitude,  admiration,  and 
love."  Matthew  Arnold  in  his  poem  Rugby 
Chapel,  sings: 

«•  But  souls  tempered  with  fire, 
Fervent,  heroic  and  good, 
Helpers  and  friends  of  mankind. 


Ye,  like  angels,  appear, 
Radiant  with  ardor  divine! 


208       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

Beacons  of  hope,  ye  appear! 
Languor  is  not  in  your  heart, 
Weakness  is  not  in  your  word, 
Weariness  not  on  your  brow. 
Ye  alight  in  our  van!  at  your  voice 
Panic,  despair  flee  away, 
Ye  move  through  the  ranks,  recall 
The  stragglers,  refresh  the  outworn, 
Praise,  reinspire  the  brave! 
Order,  courage,  return. 
Eyes  rekindling,  and  prayers, 
Follow  your  steps  as  you  go. 
Ye  fill  up  the  gaps  in  our  files, 
Strengthen  the  wavering  line, 
Stablish,  continue  our  march, 
On,  to  the  bound  of  the  waste, 
On,  to  the  City  of  God." 

(4)  The  higher  education  to  be  a  worthy 
force  in  civilization  must  also  be  religious.  It 
is  to  have  relation  to  him  whom  we  call  God. 
It  is  to  be  concerned  with  infinite  reality. 
Shall  the  university  have  a  right  to  know  the 
work  in  which  the  human  spirit  has  been  em- 
bodying itself,  poetry,  essay,  history,  and 
not  have  a  right  to  reflect  on  him  whose  pres- 
ence inspires,  and  whose  wisdom  guides  each? 
Shall  the  higher  education  have  a  right  to  ob- 
serve phenomena  of  the  visible  creation  and  to 
know  the  relations  and  inter-relations  of  these 
phenomena,  and  not  have  a  right  to  think  of 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       209 

Him  whose  law  is  our  light?  Shall  the  higher 
education  have  a  right  to  study  human  affairs 
in  the  vast  domain  of  man's  progress  and  re- 
gress, of  his  sufferings  and  exultations,  and 
not  have  a  right  to  seek  to  know  Him  in  whom 
we  live  and  move  and  have  our  being,  who  is 
the  Lord  of  lords,  and  obedience  to  whom  is 
perfect  freedom?  Ah,  we  can  never  forget 
that  the  theistic  conception  is  the  conception 
on  which  the  university  is  founded.  To  God 
the  university  bears  a  relation.  This  relation 
it  could  not  abdicate  or  negate  if  it  would, 
and  it  would  not  if  it  could.  Not  as  Protes- 
tant, not  as  Romanist,  not  as  Hebrew,  but  as 
Catholic  should  every  university  man  see  that 
all  knowledge  is  to  be  related  to  omniscience. 
By  what  method  or  means  the  university  is 
to  seek  these  relations  represents  a  field  of 
discussion  not  proper  for  the  present  hour,  but 
it  may  be  suffered  to  be  said  that  the  method 
consists  not  so  much  in  any  direct  means  or 
way,  nor  in  reiterated  declarations,  as  it  does 
consist  in  large  relations  to  great  thinkers  and 
in  pervasive  atmospheres.  As  has  been  said  by 
one  who  has  been  the  president  of  a  great  uni- 
versity, and  who  is  now  a  professor  in  a  New 
England  college,  though  changed  in  phrase, 
truth  is  but  a  guarantee  of  the  ultimate  truth 


210       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

of  a  spiritual  universe.  Man  is  to  have  fellow- 
ship with  man  in  personal,  economical,  civic 
righteousness.  And  all  things  are  to  be 
gathered  into  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  uni- 
versity is  not  so  much  to  have  a  religion  as 
it  is  to  be  religious.  It  is  not  so  much  to  make 
certain  declarations  about  God  as  it  is  to  be  in 
fellowship  with  and  in  the  stewardship  of  God. 
Holiness  for  the  individual,  breadth  for  the 
race,  great  personalities,  religion,  are  the  four 
elements  which  the  university  is  to  represent 
and  to  embody  in  order  to  be  a  force  worthy 
to  dominate  human  society.  These  four  ele- 
ments are  to  be  held  and  to  be  held  together 
in  fitting  proportions.  Education  is  to  be 
broad.  It  is  to  be  concerned  with  the  whole 
of  the  individual.  It  is  not  to  be  self-centered. 
It  is  also  to  be  social,  missionary.  It  is  to  be 
thinking  in  order  to  be  thoughtful.  It  is  to  be 
strong  in  order  to  be  helpful,  righteous  in 
order  to  teach  rectitude.  It  is  to  possess 
mighty  personalities  in  order  to  train  mighty 
personalities.  Although  the  university  thus 
relates  itself  to  divinity,  and  although  putting 
itself  into  relationship  with  divinity,  it  is  ever 
to  regard  itself  as  human.  It  is  to  adjust  the 
greatest  strength  unto  self-sacrifice  and  self- 
sacrifice  unto  the  greatest  strength.  It  is  to 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        211 

adjust  the  human  to  the  divine  in  the  individ- 
ual. The  university  is  to  be  as  John  Henry 
Newman  says  in  a  page  seldom  read,  but 
which  cannot  be  repeated  too  often :  "  It  is  the 
place  to  which  a  thousand  schools  make  con- 
tributions; in  which  the  intellect  may  safely 
range  and  speculate,  sure  to  find  its  equal  in 
some  antagonist  activity,  and  its  judge  in  the 
tribunal  of  truth.  It  is  a  place  where  inquiry 
is  pushed  forward,  and  discoveries  verified 
and  perfected,  and  rashness  rendered  innocu- 
ous and  error  exposed,  by  the  collision  of 
mind  with  mind,  and  knowledge  with  knowl- 
edge. It  is  the  place  where  the  professor 
becomes  eloquent,  and  is  a  missionary  and  a 
preacher,  displaying  his  science  in  its  most 
complete  and  most  winning  form,  pouring  it 
forth  with  the  zeal  of  enthusiasm,  and  lighting 
up  his  own  love  of  it  in  the  breasts  of  his  hear- 
ers. It  is  a  place  where  the  catechist  makes 
go'od  his  ground  as  he  goes,  treading  the  truth 
day  by  day  into  the  ready  memory,  and  wedg- 
ing and  tightening  it  into  the  expanding  rea- 
son. It  is  a  place  which  wins  the  admiration 
of  the  young  by  its  celebrity,  kindles  the  affec- 
tions of  the  middle-aged  by  its  beauty,  and 
rivets  the  fidelity  of  the  old  by  its  associations. 
It  is  a  seat  of  wisdom.,  a  light  of  the  world, 


212       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

a  minister  of  the  faith,  an  Alma  Mater  of  the 
rising  generation/' 

The  university  is  to  strengthen  itself  might- 
ily for  its  dominance  in  human  affairs.  The 
family  has  been  and  is  a  mighty  force  in  civil- 
ization. It  is  based  on  the  exclusive  love  of 
two  persons.  The  university  also  is  to 
have  mighty  personalities.  The  church  for  a 
thousand  years  controlled  the  world.  The  uni- 
versity is  not  so  much  to  control  the  world  as 
it  is  to  fit  the  world  to  control  itself  in  the  love 
and  fear  of  God.  The  book  has  for  four  hun- 
dred years  been  a  mighty  power.  The  uni- 
versity takes  the  book  as  its  basis.  The 
formal  government  has  in  the  civilized  state 
mightily  influenced  the  people.  The  univer- 
sity is  to  create  governors,  and  law-makers, 
law-interpreters,  and  executives  in  every 
state.  Ah,  the  magnificence  of  the  priv- 
ilege, the  greatness  of  the  duty,  the  majesty 
of  the  commission  of  the  university  in  the  new 
century  and  in  the  new  world. 

Members  of  the  Graduating  Classes:  The 
university  is  for  you,  the  university  is  through 
you  for  all.  The  university  does  its  work 
in  the  progress  of  civilization  through 
the  men  and  women  whom  it  trains.  The 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       213 

university,  rejoicing,  sends  you  forth.  Christ 
chose  twelve  men  and  appointed  them  apostles. 
He  wrote  no  books ;  he  trained  men.  The  uni- 
versity has  been  apostolic  for  these  four  years. 
The  university  has  sought  to  give  you  a  better 
and  a  best  self.  It  has  sought  to  inspire  you 
with  the  social  motive.  It  has  tried  to  prove 
through  its  teachers  that  life  is  more  than  liv- 
ing, that  personality  is  better  than  equipment. 
It  has  tried  to  teach  in  reasonableness  and 
fitness  the  beauty  of  religion.  To-night  it  de- 
clares that  its  work  is  done.  For  better  or  for 
worse,  but  always  for  the  better  we  hope,  for 
enriched  or  for  enfeebled  power,  but  always 
for  enriched  we  believe,  the  university  has  now 
completed  her  formal  service.  But  at  once  on 
the  completion  of  the  formal  service  she  adopts 
you  into  sonship.  You  become  her  child. 
You  bear  her  name,  you  receive  her  inherit- 
ance. You  carry  forth  her  honors.  You  are 
to  occupy  high  places.  To  you  who  stand  here, 
more  than  fourscore,  the  largest  class  which 
ever  here  stood,  to  you  who  represent  others, 
almost  two  hundred  in  number,  who  will  stand 
here  next  Thursday,  the  University  commits 
her  work  for  the  betterment  of  man.  As  you 
are  ever  large  in  mind,  great  in  heart,  right  in 
conscience,  mighty  in  will,  as  you  are  mission- 


214       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

ary  in  motive,  as  you  are  great  in  soul,  and  as 
you  are  in  touch  with  eternal  and  mighty 
omnipotence,  so  you  will  do  much  and  most 
for  answering  that  prayer  daily  offered  in  all 
your  college  days,  "Thy  kingdom  come." 
May  you  prove  yourselves  to  be  worthy  sons 
and  daughters  of  Alma  Mater. 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       215 


XIV 

THE  BEST  WORK 

"  And  He  saith  unto  them,  follow  me,  and  I  wil 
make  you  fishers  of  men. 

"And  they  straightway  left  their  nets,  and  fol- 
lowed Him." — Matt.  iv.  19,  20. 

THE  call  thus  made  and  obeyed  is  a 
call  to  neither  leisure  nor  rest.  It  is 
a  call  to  work.  The  call  is  a  call  to  a 
work  of  the  same  kind  with  that  which  those 
called  have  done.  The  call  is  a  call  to  a  work 
of  a  nobler  degree  than  that  which  those  who 
are  called  have  done.  It  is  a  call  still  to  be 
fishers.  It  is  a  call  to  become  fishers  of  men. 

The  principal  thought,  therefore,  to  which  I 
invite  your  attention  is  the  question,  What  is 
the  best  work  to  which  men  are  called? 

The  question  itself  has  a  peculiar  signifi- 
cance. One  of  its  central  parts  is  the  sim- 
ple word  Work.  How  that  word  rings  out 
through  all  human  history!  Hardly  had  the 
first  man  and  woman,  and  the  earth,  been 


216       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

created  before  this  man  and  woman  are  com- 
manded to  dress  and  to  keep  the  earth.  When 
from  their  beautiful  garden  they  are  driven 
out,  the  command  is  that  they  are  to  become 
hard  workers.  Throughout  all  the  centuries 
whenever  man  has  lived  and  throughout 
all  lands  wherever  man  has  gone,  that  first 
command  has  been  repeated.  As  man  has 
sought  for  the  noblest  and  aspired  for  the 
highest,  has  he  found  himself  to  be  a  worker. 
In  cursing  or  in  blessing  is  each  obliged  to  toil. 
As  humanity  has  risen,  as  civilization  has  be- 
come finer,  has  the  cursing  of  work  become 
transmuted  into  the  beneficence  of  service. 
Caryle's  beatitude  has  at  last  become  true  in 
other  than  in  the  first  sense  in  which  he  meant 
it:  "Blessed  be  the  man  who  has  found  his 
work;"  most  blessed,  thrice  blessed  be  that 
man  who  has  found  the  best  work. 

To  the  question,  therefore,  what  is  the  best 
work,  I  wish  to  give  four  answers : 

First :  The  best  work  is  a  human  work.  It 
is  a  work  of  which  the  ideal  is  devotion  to  man. 
It  is  a  work  of  which  the  condition  is  service 
among  men.  It  is  a  work  of  which  the 
method  is  association  with  men.  It  is  a  work 
of  which  the  motive  lies  in  love  for  man. 
Work  human  includes  a  human  ideal,  a  human 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       217 

condition,  a  human  method  and  a  human  mo- 
tive. The  human  ideal  represents  humanity 
in  its  highest  state.  It  represents  the  reign  of 
the  human  reason, — the  reason,  not  of  one 
member,  but  of  all  members  of  the  race. 
Truth  is  made  to  prevail,  not  for  one,  but  for 
all.  Reason  exists  as  an  agency,  a  treasure  for 
all  reasons.  It  represents  a  progress  equiv- 
alent to  the  progress  which  Comte  pro- 
claimed. The  human  ideal  also  represents 
the  will  of  the  race,  willing  the  best. 
It  represents  democracy  in  its  most  force- 
ful relation.  It  is  a  social  will,  willing  the 
highest.  The  human  ideal  also  embodies  the 
social  heart.  The  social  heart  is  a  heart  great 
in  love.  The  human  ideal  also  includes  the 
social  conscience.  Humanity  has  now 
reached  the  stage  in  which  there  is  the  con- 
science of  the  whole  community.  It  embraces 
a  sense  of  obligation  toward  itself,  toward 
other  communities  and  toward  individuals, 
who  compose  them.  The  human  ideal,  there- 
fore, embraces  a  like-mindedness,  a  like-will- 
ness,  a  like-heartedness  and  a  like-con- 
scientiousness.  A  work,  which  is  human,  em- 
braces a  human  ideal  of  reason,  will,  heart, 
conscience,  raised  to  its  highest  power. 
Every  work,  which  is  human,  must  have  this 


218       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

supreme,  consummate  purpose.  Labor  is 
done  in  order  to  realize  such  an  ideal. 

But  human  work  also  includes  what  I  shall 
call  a  social  condition.  It  represents  the  re- 
lation of  man  to  man.  This  relation  is  one 
of  knowledge.  Man  is  to  know  man.  Man 
is  to  be  known  by  man.  No  work  can  be 
called  at  all  human  which  forbids  such  human 
knowledge.  Such  knowledge  is  to  be  gained 
through  the  intellect  and  also  through  the 
heart. 

Work,  which  is  human,  also  represents  a 
human  method.  This  method  represents  the 
social  method  of  association.  It  embodies  the 
oneness  of  men  with  men.  There  is  a  mightily 
increasing  sense  of  the  unity  of  men.  Men 
have  become  man;  the  lessening  size  of  the 
world,  the  increasing  unity  of  all  created 
classes,  have  together  resulted  in  a  more  vivid 
sense  of  the  oneness  of  the  race.  The  cry 
Liberty,  equality,  fraternity,  has  given  way  to 
the  cry  Liberty,  unity,  fraternity.  Unity  is  a 
more  important  symbol  than  equality. 

But  a  work,  which  is  human,  is  also  a  work 
inspired  by  the  human  motive.  The  supreme 
human  motive  is  embodied  in  the  great 
monosyllable  Love.  Human  work  is  a  work 
done  in  love  for  man.  God  so  loved  the  world 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       219 

that  He  gave.  Man  so  loves  the  world  that 
he  works  for  the  world. 

Therefore,  a  work,  which  is  human,  contains 
the  human  ideal  which  embraces  the  human 
reason,  the  human  will,  the  human  conscience 
and  the  human  heart  lifted  to  their  richest  and 
fullest  power.  Work,  which  is  human,  also 
includes  a  work  which  is  done  in  a  knowledge 
of  man,  of  man's  strength  and  weaknesses, 
failures  and  ambitions,  hopes  and  memories. 
Work  which  is  human  also  includes  a  work 
that  is  done  in  the  human  method  of  intimate 
association  of  men,  of  oneness  with  men.  A 
work,  also,  which  is  human  represents  work 
inspired  with  the  motive  of  love  for  men.  Such 
a  work  cannot  be  other  than  the  best.  Can 
the  human  mind  conceive  of  any  nobler  task 
or  worthier  duty? 

These  remarks  receive  their  illustration  in 
certain  significant  movements  occurring  in 
the  last  academic  year.  What  makes  that 
which  will  be  known  as  "the  great  coal 
strike"  significant?  Is  it  the  fact  that 
coal  was  not  mined  and  transported? 
Is  it  that  " wages  ceased?  Is  it  that  the 
industries  of  many  a  city  and  town  were 
interrupted?  Rather  is  it  not  the  fact  that 
men  to  the  number  of  one  hundred  and  fifty 


220       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

thousand  had  made  a  certain  covenant?  Is  it 
not  rather  that  other  laborers  of  a  larger  num- 
ber had  made  a  promise  to  give  aid  and  comfort 
to  the  coal  strikers?  Does  not  the  impressive- 
ness  arise  from  the  fact  that  millions  of  other 
people  were  suffering  from  the  failure  of  min- 
ers in  Pennsylvania  to  work?  The  human 
element  made  the  strike  significant.  The 
method,  too,  of  settlement  was  significant  be- 
cause of  its  human  relationship.  The  method 
was  a  method  to,  for,  of,  and  by  men.  The 
President,  as  a  person,  was  devoted  to  men. 
The  conditions  of  settlement  were  found 
among  men.  The  method  of  settlement  ex- 
isted with  men,  and  the  motive  lay  among 
men  themselves. 

The  human  character  of  the  best  work  re- 
ceives illustration  also  in  what  may  be  called 
the  whole  industrial  movement.  This  move- 
ment is  called  industrial.  Is  it  a  human  move- 
ment also?  Is  it  a  movement  for,  among, 
with  men  and  in  men?  Does  it  tend  to  make 
the  human  ideal  of  the  reason,  the  will,  the 
heart,  the  conscience  of  man  attainable?  Is  it 
a  movement  which  aids  men  in  mutual  under- 
standing and  appreciation?  Is  it  beneficent 
in  bringing  men  into  closeness  of  association 
and  intimacy  of  relationship?  Does  it  inspire 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       221 

and  promote  the  development  of  the  principle 
of  Love?  Is  it,  in  a  word,  human?  By  some 
the  present  industrial  condition  is  declared  to 
be  a  state  of  war,  a  state,  therefore,  in  which 
deception  is  free  from  moral  shame,  in  which 
guile  is  guiltless  and  murder  only  homicide. 
If  this  interpretation  be  at  all  true,  then  it  be- 
comes all  good  men  to  devote  themselves  to 
the  transmuting  of  the  industrial  movement 
into  a  human  movement.  Do  lessened  hours 
of  toil  mean  a  larger  manhood?  D'oes  in- 
crease of  wage  mean  an  elimination  of  personal 
meanness  and  smallness?  Does  high  environ- 
ment mean  a  larger  choice  of  and  for  character? 
Whatever  answer  may  be  given  to  these  ques- 
tions this  night  or  this  year,  it  cannot  for  one 
moment  be  doubted  that  out  of  this  industrial 
and  social  storm  and  stress,  the  human  world 
is  to  come  forth  at  last  finer  and  fairer,  into  a 
calm  calmer,  into  an  activity  better  ordered, 
into  a  life  more  human  and  more  divine.  Ser- 
vice that  helps  the  dawn  of  such  a  June  morn- 
ing is  the  noblest  work  that  God  gives  to 
man. 

Second :  The  noblest  work  to  which  man  is 
called  is  not  only  human,  it  is  also  humane. 
One  of  the  great  characteristics  of  Shake- 
speare, says  one  of  his  worthiest  interpreters, 


222       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

is  his  humaneness.     The  great  poet  himself 
speaks  through  Portia  when  she  says : 

'"  The  quality  of  mercy  is  not  strain'd; 
It  droppeth  as  the  gentle  rain  from  heaven 
Upon  the  place  beneath:  it  is  twice  bless'd; 
It  blesseth  him  that  gives,  and  him  that  takes: 
'Tis  mightiest  in  the  mightiest:  it  becomes 
The  throned  monarch  better  than  his  crown; 
His  sceptre  shows  the  force  of  temporal  power, 
The  attribute  to  awe  and  majesty, 
Wherein  doth  sit  the  dread  and  fear  of  kings; 
But  mercy  is  above  this  sceptred  sway; 
It  is  enthroned  in  the  hearts  of  kings, 
It  is  an  attribute  to  God  himself; 
And  earthly  power  doth  then  show  likest  God's 
When  mercy  seasons  justice." 

The  peril  of  humaneness  is  that  it  becomes 
a  defying  of  the  law  of  progress.  It  tends  to 
put  the  undeserving  where  the  deserving  alone 
have  a  right  to  be.  It  is  liable  to  substitute 
graciousness  for  righteousness.  It  is  in  dan- 
ger of  distributing  its  favors  to  the  ill-deserv- 
ing more  liberally  than  to  the  undeserving  and 
to  the  undeserving  more  liberally  than  to  the 
deserving.  It  seems  to  increase  2,  plus  2  to  5 
and  to  make  4  minus  2  equal  to  3.  Such  are 
some  of  the  perils  which  humaneness  may  in- 
cur, but  these  perils  need  not  be  incurred. 
Humaneness  is  at  once  a  negative  and  a  posi- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        223 

tive  virtue.  As  a  negative  excellence  it  pre- 
serves one  from  acts  and  habits  which  will  in- 
jure another  person  and  impair  his  undertak- 
ings. The  strenuousness  of  modern  work  and 
the  success  of  modern  labors  often  seem  to 
blind  the  worker  and  the  triumphant  one  to 
the  duties  and  rights  of  humaneness.  The 
crushing  of  rivals  is  an  evil  forgotten  in  the 
splendor  of  one's  own  triumph.  The  trickery 
of  business  is  concealed  by  the  power  of 
business  successes.  The  method  of  nature  in 
bringing  forth  a  million  of  blossoms  that  it 
may  produce  a  thousand  pieces  of  fruit  is  used 
as  an  illustration  of  the  method  prevailing  in 
the  commercial  world  in  behalf  of  the  absorp- 
tion of  the  many  and  the  weak  into  the  few  and 
the  strong.  Nature  may  be  indeed  bloody,  but 
for  that  very  reason  humanity  is  not  to  spill  or 
to  absorb  human  blood.  The  claw  belongs  to 
the  brute,  the  hand  to  man,  therefore  processes 
in  the  modern  industrial  world  are  not  the 
best,  are  not  human,  which  represent  the  blot- 
ting out  of  the  individual  or  the  lessening  or 
impairing  of  individualism.  The  modern  in- 
dustrial condition  needs  to  have  read  to  itself 
an  old  parable  from  a  book  older  than  Plato's 
Dialogues,  which  is: 

"And  the  Lord  sent  Nathan  unto  David. 


224:       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

And  he  came  unto  him,  and  said  unto  him, 
There  were  two  men  in  one  city ;  the  one  rich, 
and  the  other  poor. 

"  The  rich  man  had  exceeding  many  flocks 
and  herds : 

"  But  the  poor  man  had  nothing,  save  one 
little  ewe  lamb,  which  he  had  bought  and 
nourished  up:  and  it  grew  up  together  with 
him,  and  with  his  children;  it  did  eat  of  his 
own  meat,  and  drank  of  his  own  cup,  and  lay 
in  his  bosom,  and  was  unto  him  as  a  daughter. 

"  And  there  came  a  traveler  unto  the  rich 
man,  and  he  spared  to  take  of  his  own  flock 
and  of  his  own  herd,  to  dress  for  the  wayfar- 
ing man  that  was  come  unto  him ;  but  took  the 
poor  man's  lamb,  and  dressed  it  for  the  man 
that  was  come  to  him."  Is  not  the  parable 
true  of  any  great  industry,  which,  against  the 
will  of  the  smaller  industry,  absorbs  it  under 
compulsion  of  destruction?  Does  not  the 
modern  man  still  answer  in  the  angry  words 
of  David  : 

"  And  David's  anger  was  greatly  kindled 
against  the  man;  and  he  said  to  Nathan,  As  the 
Lord  liveth,  the  man  that  hath  done  this  thing 
shall  surely  die: 

"And  he  shall  restore  the  lamb  fourfold, 
because  he  did  this  thing,  and  because  he  had 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       225 

no  pity."  And  shall  the  preacher  adopt  the 
words  of  Nathan  and  say:  "Thou  art  the 
man  "  ? 

Humaneness  has  a  positive,  as  well  as  a 
negative  reference.  It  seeks  not  only  not  to 
hurt,  it  seeks  to  help  and  to  promote.  The 
work  which  you  are  to  do  should  be  graciously 
humane,  and  in  the  equality  of  other  things, 
the  more  graciously  humane  any  work  is  the 
nobler  it  is.  Let  that  work  which  you 
choose  be  a  work  that  tends  to  give  a 
gentleness  remote  from  weakness,  a  kindness 
which  is  not  unmeaning  softness,  a  self-suffi- 
ciency which  is  not  self-satisfaction,  a  radiancy 
of  good  will  free  from  self-consciousness,  and 
a  self-knowledge,  a  self-reverence  and  a  self- 
control  which  shall  be  a  love  and  a  beneficence 
for  humanity. 

Third:  The  best  work,  too,  to  which  God 
calls  men  should  contain  elements  of  the  di- 
vine. It  should  bear  relations  to  the  plan  of 
God  for  his  world.  It  should  aid  in  the 
achievement  of  this  plan.  One's  work  is 
often  named  a  calling.  Significant  the  term, 
— as  if  God  Himself  summoned  man  to  his 
work :  a  vocation  as  if  the  voice  of  the  eternal 
spoke  in  him  or  spoke  to  him  impelling  com- 
mand. 


226       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

There  is  one  calling  which  has  been  specific- 
ally named  divine,  to  which  men  were  supposed 
to  be  summoned  with  a  peculiar  and  particular 
summons.  Its  service  was,  and  is,  supposed 
to  bear  a  most  intimate  and  constructive  re- 
lation to  the  progress  of  the  divine  kingdom. 
Every  man  whose  supreme  purpose  was  t 
serve  God  and  to  enjoy  Him  forever  was  sup- 
posed to  become  one  of  its  members.  This 
calling,  this  vocation  was  and  is  the  minis- 
try. Great  is  the  change  in  popular  mind  re- 
specting its  elements.  It  is  no  longer  usually 
supposed  that  men  are  summoned  to  it  with  a 
peculiar  and  particular  command.  Its  services 
are  no  longer  presumed  to  bear  a  more  inti- 
mate and  constructive  relation  to  the  prog- 
ress of  the  divine  kingdom  than  are  services 
in  any  other  calling.  Its  servants,  of  supreme 
idealism,  find  other  servants  of  the  same  divine 
Master,  of  an  idealism  no  less  commanding, 
outside  its  altar  rails.  One  of  the  ablest  of  col- 
lege presidents,  himself  a  clergyman  of  piety, 
devotion,  and  distinction,  is  said  to  advise  his 
graduates  not  to  enter  the  calling  of  Richard 
Salter  Storrs,  of  Bishop  Simpson,  and  of 
Horace  Bushnell. 

What  is  the  place  and  function  of  the  min- 
istry to-day?    Has  it  a  peculiarly  divine  sane- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        227 

tion?  It  might  of  course  be  said  of  the  min- 
istry, as  of  other  professions,  that  it 
promotes  the  intellectual  breadth  and  the  in- 
tellectual depth  of  the  one  following  it.  It 
also  unites  in  a  singular  way  the  intellectual 
and  the  practical  character.  It  might  also  be 
affirmed  that  it  represents  a  mighty  public  in- 
fluenceA  and  that  its  relation  to  literature, 
as  a  condition  and  an  opportuuity,  is  of  singu- 
lar significance.  It  might  also  be  declared 
that  for  the  service  of  the  ministry  all  that  is 
in  a  man  can  be  most  easily  and  directly  used. 
If  he  be  an  average  man,  all  there  is  in  him  can 
be  employed.  If  he  be  a  great  citizen,  the  com- 
munity will  call  upon  him  for  accordingly 
great  service.  If  he  be  a  thinker  and  a  scholar, 
his  natural  resources  can  be  poured  out  with- 
out limit.  If  he  be  distinguished  for  gracious- 
ness,  humanity  in  its  need  will  summon  the 
best  of  this  comprehensive  and  supreme  qual- 
ity. Every  hour  of  his  working  day  can  be 
used  to  advantage  and  every  day  of  his  work- 
ing week  may  represent  a  positive  increment 
for  the  betterment  of  man,  and  every  week  of 
his  church  year  may  embody  a  mighty  con- 
dition of  human  helpfulness,  and  every  year 
in  his  whole  career  may  show  a  community 
higher  in  power,  abler  in  condition  and  richer 


228       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

in  all  that  constitutes  highest  wealth.  But 
also,  and  more,  the  ministry  does  represent  ap- 
parently an  essential  force  in  the  progress  of 
Christianity.  If  the  ministry  were  abolished, 
Christianity  would  advance,  but  if  leaders  are 
important  to  any  undertaking,  the  minister  is 
important  for  the  progress  of  Christianity.  As 
Daniel  Webster  said  in  the  Girard  College 
case :  "  And  where  was  Christianity  ever  re- 
ceived, where  were  its  truths  ever  poured  into 
the  human  heart,  where  did  its  waters  spring- 
ing up  into  everlasting  life  ever  burst  forth 
except  in  the  track  of  the  Christian  ministry? 
Did  we  ever  hear  of  an  instance,  does  history 
record  an  instance  of  any  part  of  the  globe 
Christianity  by  lay  preachers  or  lay  teachers?  " 
Therefore  I  stand  here  to  appeal  to  you, 
and  through  you  to  others,  that  the  ministry, 
which  has,  for  the  time  being,  fallen  in  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  esteem,  represents  a  mighty  call- 
ing for  the  betterment  of  man.  I  am  not  say- 
ing but  that  other  works  are  also  divine,  I  am 
not  saying  but  that  other  works  may  have  in 
themselves  that  degree  of  divineness  which  you 
have  in  yourself  and  which  you  may  put  into 
these  works,  but  I  do  want  to  say  that,  with 
a  special  significance,  for  certain  men  in  this 
age  of  ours,  the  ministry  is  the  best  work,  be- 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        229 

cause  it  is  so  divine.  In  the_year  1877,  speak- 
ing to  the  students  of  the  Yale  Divinity 
School,  Phillips  Brooks  said:  "  I  cannot  help 
bearing  witness  to  the  joy  of  the  life  which  you 
anticipate.  There  is  no  career  that  can  compare 
with  it  for  a  moment  in  the  rich  and  satisfying 
relations  into  which  it  brings  a  man  with  his 
fellow-men,  in  the  deep  and  interesting  insight 
which  it  gives  him  into  human  nature,  and  in 
the  chance  of  the  best  culture  for  his  own  char- 
acter. Its  delight  never  grows  old,  its  interest 
never  wanes,  its  stimulus  is  never  exhausted." 
And  nine  years  after,  speaking  to  the  students 
of  Harvard  College,  he  said:  "  I  must  tell  you 
that  it  is  the  noblest  and  most  glorious  calling 
to  which  man  can  give  himself." 

Fourth:  The  best  work,  too,  to  which  man 
can  be  called  is  a  work  which  represents  obedi- 
ence to  the  highest.  It  is  told  in  the  text  that 
the  disciples  followed  Christ.  To  them  Christ 
was  the  noblest  personality  they  could  follow. 
His  command  was  indeed  a  categorical  impera- 
tive. Obedience  to  the  highest  may  or  may 
not  represent  the  calling  of  the  minister  or  the 
calling  of  the  teacher.  A  priest  of  the  Church 
of  England,  a  distinguished  historian,  wrote  of 
his  ordination :  "  I  gladly  and  thankfully  ac- 
cepted the  position  of  a  minister  of  the  Church 


230       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

of  England,  which  seemed  to  hold  out  to  me 
the  prospect  of  an  honorable  and  useful  career 
in  life,  while  it  was  favored  by  the  opportuni- 
ties which  were  opening  to  me.  I  indulged 
my  own  taste  while  I  gratified  my  father's 
wishes,  and  satisfied  him  that  he  had  not  done 
ill  in  directing  my  course  to  the  University. 
I  anticipated  a  residence  of  several  years  as 
tutor  at  my  college,  and  hoped  to  occupy  the 
time  with  congenial  associates  and  studies 
while  waiting  for  the  college  living  which  was 
in  due  time  to  set  me  at  liberty.  I  longed  for 
literary  leisure,  and  I  proposed  to  utilize  it  in 
the  line  of  my  accepted  calling." 

Such  are  the  words  of  Dean  Merivale 
printed  in  his  autobiography.  They  are  not 
worthy  of  the  historian  of  the  Roman  Empire. 
Rather  let  me  say  that  words  that  are  less  un- 
worthy, words  that  are  worthy  in  expressing 
obedience  to  the  highest  were  written  by  one 
who  was  supposed  to  be  the  enemy  of  the 
Church,  of  the  ministry  and  of  Christianity. 
Huxley  met  a  great  temptation.  As  says  his 
son :  "  Why  not  clip  the  wings  of  Pegasus,  and 
descend  to  the  sober,  everyday  jog-trot  after 
plain  bread  and  cheese  like  other  plain  peo- 
ple? "  Yet  to  such  a  temptation  he  proved  in- 
vincible. He  declares  that  he  will  not  sell 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH        231 

his  birthright  for  a  mess  of  pottage.  "  I  will 
make  myself  a  name  and  a  position  as  well  as 
an  income  by  some  kind  of  pursuit  connected 
with  science/'  Such  obedience  to  the  highest 
moved,  too,  a  friend  of  Huxley's,  Charles 
Kingsley,  who  writes  of  an  evening  in  June, 
just  sixty-two  years  ago-: 

"  My  birth-night.  I  have  been  for  the  last 
hour  on  the  seashore,  not  dreaming,  but  think- 
ing deeply  and  strongly,  and  forming  deter- 
minations which  are  to  affect  my  destiny 
through  time  and  through  eternity.  Before 
the  sleeping  earth  and  the  sleepless  sea  and 
stars  I  have  devoted  myself  to  God;  a  vow 
never  (if  He  gives  me  the  faith  I  pray  for)  to 
be  recalled." 

A  work  which  represents  your  obedience  to 
the  highest  will  be,  first,  a  work  which  allures 
and  invites  the  development  of  all  your  powers, 
— your  individual  greatness,  and,  second,  a 
work  through  which  you  can  make  the  richest 
contribution  to  human  betterment, — noblest 
altruistic  service.  Such  is  the  best  work.  This 
service  is  to  be  the  largest  possible  in 
content,  the  highest  possible  in  quality,  the 
longest  possible  in  duration,  the  widest 
possible  in  extent,  the  best  possible  in 
significance  and  the  greatest  possible  in  influ- 


232       A  LIBERAL  EDUCATION 

ence.  Such  obedience  will  prevent  your  mak- 
ing grievous  mistakes  in  life's  supreme  choice. 
Such  obedience  will  save  you  from  making  the 
amassing  of  wealth  a  professional  aim.  Such 
obedience  will  prevent  you  from  thinking  of 
your  home  as  a  nest  in  whose  soft  warmths 
and  tender  enchantments  you  are  forever  to 
cuddle.  But  rather  such  obedience  to  the 
highest  will  represent  a  most  forceful  and 
graceful  quality  and  movement  of  character. 

Obedience  to  the  highest  will  give  you  a 
calling,  which  shall  be  a  condition  that 
shall  be  as  Heaven.  Obedience  to  the  highest 
will  give  you  a  work  that  shall  have  the  power 
of  the  cardinal  virtues  and  the  fundamental 
verities.  Obedience  to  the  highest  will  em- 
body for  you  an  outer  ego,  which  shall  at  once 
minister  to  yourself  and  to  others  in  noblest 
enlargement  and  finest  enrichment.  Thus, 
shall  danger  not  overcome  nor  luxury  con- 
sume. Thus,  your  inspiration  shall  have  pas- 
sion, your  aspiration  power,  and  your  divine- 
ness  reality. 

Members  of  the  Graduating  Classes :  "  Fol- 
low me  and  I  will  make  you  fishers  of  men: 
and  they  straightway  left  their  nets  and  fol- 
lowed him."  Again  Christ  stands,  and  again 


AND  A  LIBERAL  FAITH       233 

the  Christ  speaks.  Before  you  He  stands  and 
to  you  He  speaks.  The  old  command  He 
gives  and  the  old  promise  He  makes.  To  His 
command  your  heart  responds  in  exultation, 
and  to  His  promise  your  will  gives  glorious 
assent.  You  would  follow  Him,  for  He  is  the 
worthiest  leader.  His  promise  you  would  em- 
brace with  joy,  for  His  work  is  the  richest  and 
best.  For  work  you  are  eager,  and  as  the 
work  becomes  the  more  human  and  humane, 
the  more  divine  and  more  appealing  to  the 
highest  in  you,  the  more  eager  for  that  work 
do  you  become.  For  the  doing  of  such  work 
the  college  career  has,  I  hope,  given  you  a  de- 
gree of  fitness.  If  you  and  the  college  have 
worthily  worked  together  through  these  years, 
surely  your  powers  are  greater  than  are  the 
powers  given  to  most.  The  power  to  think 
largely  and  accurately,  the  power  to  will 
strongly  and  righteously,  the  power  to  love 
greatly,  the  power  to  appreciate  justly,  these 
are  powers  which  at  once  represent  the  aims 
of  the  college  and  which  are  the  powers  that 
qualify  and  inspire  you  to  do  the  best  work. 
Equipped  by  these  forces,  go  forth  from 
the  shore  of  this  your  collegiate  Galileean  sea, 
eager  and  strong  to  do  in  this  great  world  the 
best  work  to  which  God  summons  you. 


14  DAY  USE 

RETURN  TO  DESK  FROM  WHICH  BORROWED 

LOAN  DEPT. 

This  book  is  due  on  the  last  date  stamped  below,  or 

on  the  date  to  which  renewed. 
Renewed  books  are  subject  to  immediate  recall. 


LD  21A-50m-4,'59 
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General  Library 

University  of  California 

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